Polyplus-transfection SA, a privately-held company specialising in the development of innovative solutions for transfection, announces the launch of FectoPRO, the latest optimised transfection reagent in their product portfolio. FectoPRO has been designed for high yields in medium and large-scale production of proteins and antibodies in mammalian cells.

Polyplus has designed FectoPRO to deliver very high protein yields in CHO and HEK cell line systems, the current industry standard systems and most commonly used by bio-production scientists. FectoPRO will also produce up to three times more protein using half the DNA required by other leading commercial transfection reagents. In addition, scientists working with transient gene expression (TGE) systems using FectoPRO will be able to benefit from reproducibility experiment-to-experiment and between reagent batches.

“The bio-production markets, specifically those using larger scale transient transfection systems, have continued to increase their need for higher protein yields whilst decreasing costs and reducing the time to develop viable lead molecules. In our communication with customers, across all sections of this market, these were the consistent and clear messages coming back to us time and time again,” said Mark Bloomfield, cief executive officer, of Polyplus-transfection. “This is why Polyplus has introduced FectoPRO into its product portfolio.”

Sales of transfection reagents for bio-production applications such as larger scale TGE contribute approximately 10 per cent of Polyplus’ current revenues. Based on current FectoPRO performance data and the massively positive response to the initial product launch at PEGS, FectoPRO is expected to increase bio-production sales to more than 30 per cent of Polyplus’ revenues.

“In our hands, FectoPRO gives the highest protein production yields we have ever reached using transient transfection,” said Philippe Funfrock, chief executive officer, at ProteoGenix SAS. “Our company offers custom services including protein production in mammalian cells. Being able to produce a lot more protein without revisiting our expression system opens a whole new range of possibilities for our antibody and protein production services.”

Polyplus noticed the changes in market demand in early 2012. They began initial research, selecting a suitable compound from the extensive Polyplus library that had the potential to meet or exceed these specific customer needs. The development phase of the project started in 2013, and required extensive testing of the lead candidate in a wide range of in house TGE systems. In addition, Polyplus arranged for a number of independent CMO/CROs including ProtoGenix to evaluate the candidate in their own proprietary systems. They fully benchmarked performance against other commercially available reagents. The reagent was transferred to Polyplus manufacturing and documentation relating to the Polyplus Quality Management System was completed. FectoPRO was first presented to select scientists attending the PEGS meeting in Boston (5 – 9 May 2014).

The FectoPRO transfection reagent offers scientists working in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology specific advantages over other commercial transfection reagent offerings for bio-production. The reagent is well characterised in terms of chemical structure and is supplied ready-to-use. FectoPRO is also manufactured and formulated using a highly specific and controlled production process in Polyplus’ dedicated manufacturing facility.