Friday November 16, 12:58 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: New Brunswick Scientific Co., Inc.
New Brunswick Scientific Organizes Conference on
New Methods for Producing Low-Cost, Vaccines for
Developing Nations
EDISON, N.J., Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- New Brunswick Scientific Co., Inc. (Nasdaq:
NBSC - news; NBS), a leading manufacturer of cell growth and storage equipment and an
active sponsor of education programs on fermentation and cell culture methodologies,
recently organized a 2-day seminar in Nanjing City, China to discuss new techniques for
high-yield production of vaccines.
The conference brought together 60 research scientists from vaccine facilities throughout
China, and featured Dr. Eduardo Aycardi as keynote speaker. He is a rabies vaccine
specialist, who while heading the R & D department of a government-run vaccine facility in
Colombia, South America became the first recipient of funds for a technology development
project supported by the Rockefeller Foundation(1) and by The World Health Organization
(WHO)(2). The project's goal was to develop a protocol for producing low-cost,
high-quality rabies vaccine for human and animal health care. After twelve years of designing
perfusion systems, developing formulations, careful screening, yield optimization and testing
potency and dosage levels, in 1999, the facility was granted a license to produce and sell a
human rabies vaccine in Colombia. Now, Dr. Aycardi, working under the auspices of the
Rockefeller Foundation, is assisting researchers in other developing nations to set up vaccine
production facilities using the technology he helped to pioneer.
Dr. Aycardi stunned the Nanjing audience by explaining that his production methods, using
VERO cells grown in an NBS 30-Liter sterilizable-in-place bioreactor, can produce one
million doses of human rabies vaccine per year, using 25 grams/Liter of Cytodex-1(3)
microcarrier beads. Moreover, he does so with just three lab technicians in a 350-sq. meter
facility under GMP requirements. According to Guozhong Wang, Sr. Research Scientist at
NBS' in-house cell culture laboratory: ``Such high yields have never before been reported
and are largely attributable to the NBS bioreactor's patented Cell Lift impeller and decanting
column, which provide the high oxygen transfer, high nutrient levels and low-shear growth
environment the cells require for this level of productivity.''
By comparison, these results are ten times the average titer obtained by facilities working with
roller bottle processes, or the same yield as obtained by a several-hundred liter bioreactor system using low concentration
beads without perfusion. Furthermore, such facilities can require more than a dozen scientists and over 1,000 sq. meters of
facility space for operation. When you consider the large volumes of cell culture media and serum such facilities must use, the
benefits of implementing Dr. Aycardi's low-cost, high-yield techniques become even more evident.
Then there's the added benefit that VERO(4) cells, which are an ``established cell line'', can be obtained from any number of
worldwide repositories and can be repeatedly divided and grown with each subsequent culture identical to the one which
preceded it. Mouse derived vaccines, on the other hand, can require the use of tens of thousands of mice for vaccine
production.
While rabies continues to be rampant in many parts of the world, killing approximately 30,000 people a year, the added
importance of Dr. Aycardi's methodology is that it is easily applied towards manufacturing vaccines for a variety of
life-threatening diseases including Japanese Encephalitis and Polio. The Nanjing Conference was just one in a series of technical
programs on fermentation and cell culture techniques which NBS helped to sponsor this year. For more on upcoming education
programs, cell culture product information or technical papers, link to our web site at nbsc.com or to learn more
about Dr. Aycardi's technology, contact him at eraycardi@yahoo.com
Selected References
1. Rockefeller Foundation web site: rockfound.org
2. World Health Organization web site: who.org
3. Cytodex 1 microcarrier beads are a product of Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, web site:
bioprocess.apbiotech.com info/cytodex_prodinfo.html
4. VERO cells, originated from African green monkey kidneys, are available from repositories such as the American Type
Culture Collection (ATCC) in Manassas, VA, atcc.org or 703-365-2700.
SOURCE: New Brunswick Scientific Co., Inc. |
