DSM licenses XD cell culture patents to Amgen

DSM Pharmaceutical Products, the custom manufacturing and technology business of Netherlands-based Royal DSM (NYSE, Euronext: DSM KON), says that it has signed a non-exclusive license agreement with Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), the world’s largest independent biotech firm, for access to DSM's proprietary XD high cell density process patents. Financial terms of the accord were not revealed.

Karen King, president of DSM Biologics, commented: "We believe our proprietary XD technology will play an important role in the next generation of biopharmaceutical manufacturing."

XD technology is a highly intensified cell culture process with typical titer achievement of eight-to-10 times higher compared to current standard biomanufacturing processes. For some products, titer improvements of up to 15 times have been achieved. It is widely applicable for multiple biological products including proteins, fusion proteins and antibodies, and has been successfully employed across the full spectrum of mammalian cell systems.