Animal-derived media components carry safety concerns involving the risk of viral and prion contamination. As a result, regulatory bodies in the United States, Europe, and Japan have discouraged the use of these components in biomanufacturing. In addition to safety concerns, animal components frequently have high batch-to-batch variation, which leads to unpredictable manufacturing results.

InVitria (Fort Collins, CO, USA) was awarded a USD 725,000 Phase II, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant to broaden the applications for InVitria’s recombinant human serum albumin product Cellastim.

The Phase II grant was awarded in 2009 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, MD, USA) as a two-year project, which was successfully completed on time in 2011. “We are delighted that the objectives of the grant were achieved. The team exceeded those objectives and also implemented current Good Manufacturing Process (cGMP) quality standards for manufacturing recombinant human serum albumin,” said Scott Deeter, president of InVitria.
InVitria is a Division of Ventria Bioscience, the developer of the ExpressTec biomanufacturing system. ExpressTec is the first biomanufacturing system to commercialize recombinant protein manufacturing utilizing plants as the host. InVitria’s product line consists of completely animal-free cell culture media supplements and reagents that are distributed globally by leading distributors in life sciences and cell culture media.

Related Links:
InVitria
National Institutes of Health