High Purity New England (HPNE) will market and sell Univercells Technologies’ products in the US after the two firms enter an agreement.

No financials are connected to the agreement, however HPNE is now an authorized distributor of the firm’s technology offerings, which includes the Nevoline Upstream platform, the scale-X carbo system, and the scale-X hydro system.

“The goal is to increase reach, expand the sales pipeline and further build the supply and service organization, recognizing the importance of being closer to our customers,” a spokesperson from Univercells Technologies told BioProcess Insider.

Scale-x bioreactor. C/o Univercells

According to the firm, its single-use scale-X bioreactor portfolio “provides enhanced upstream processing of viral products,” which boast a “structured and intensified fixed-bed design” that offers a “linear scalability from the bench to the plant,” to produce gene therapies and vaccines.

Similarly, the scale-X hydro system is an “automated bioreactor for robust, scalable, high cell density and high capacity adherent cell and viral production,” that has been “designed for small scale production.”

The NevoLine Upstream platform is described as a biomanufacturing technology “that delivers cost-effective viral production, including vaccines, gene therapies and oncolytic viruses.” Its commercial and clinical scale “upstream production is achieved within a 3m² footprint.”

In 2019, global investment firm KKR which launched Gamma Bioscience invested $200 million in funding to Gamma, with up to €50 million ($54 million) set to be devoted to biologics platform firm Univercells. The funding was used to support Univercells’ technology portfolio, with the intent to commercialize the firm’s NevoLine biomanufacturing platform and the scale-X bioreactor portfolio.