Cobra Biologics and Tecrea Awarded £112K Innovate UK Grant to Develop AAV Scalable Production Bioprocess

Cobra Biologics, an international CDMO of biologics and pharmaceuticals, and Tecrea, a cell delivery biotechnology company, have been awarded a 15-month collaborative grant of £112,291 ($166,000 USD) by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK for the development of a scalable Adeno Associated Virus (AAV) production bioprocess.

The grant is awarded under Innovate UK’s ‘Technology Inspired Innovation’ competition, which aims to stimulate innovation within biosciences, identified by UK government as one of four key enabling technology areas. 

The collaboration between Cobra Biologics and Tecrea focuses on the development of a robust, large-scale bioprocess for AAV production. AAV is a safe and effective gene therapy vector with a growing commercial demand that cannot be met by current, non-scalable production approaches. The new system aims to achieve scalable GMP production of AAV at low cost by combining NanoCargo, an efficient, low toxicity nanoparticle-based transfection system from Tecrea with Cobra’s small footprint hollow fibre bioreactors and manufacturing expertise.

Dr Daniel Smith, CSO Cobra Biologics, commented: “We are looking forward to collaborating closely with Tecrea, and their innovative delivery system. This is a very exciting project for Cobra, as it has the potential to expand our current viral production offering for AAV, providing a scalable route for viral vector production using a transient transfection approach.”

Dr John Ridden, Director at Tecrea, said: “We are delighted to be working with Cobra Biologics on this project. This grant is a great opportunity for us to move our exciting nanotechnology delivery platform into large-scale transfection, which in turn could result in significant improvements in the production of new therapies.”