Replies to post #10751 on Biotech Values

[poorgradstudent]

>"These factors are slowing the interest in transgenic animals as a production alternative (...) as protein purification is generally easier from serum-protein free cell cuture media than from milk" (...) "the benefic of trangenics is in cost-of-goods, the ability to scale up by breeding animals instead of building bioreactors (...)<

This is a comment that applies almost specifically to monoclonal antibodies. For any other protein, milk has the starting advantage.

[DewDiligence]

Thanks for initiating an interesting thread.

The increased productivity of mAb cell lines in recent years is a well-known phenomenon and is perhaps the major reason for the current glut in mAb production facilities. (The withdrawal of Tysabri and the buildout of DNA’s Vacaville plant are also significant factors.)

However, as PGS stated, the kinds of proteins that GTCB expects to produce commercially (e.g. ATryn, rhAAT, AFP) have distinct production characteristics from mAbs and ought to be considered an entirely separate sub-market within the overall realm of biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Regards, Dew