Avantor expands Life Sciences Innovation Center to address bioprocessing needs in protein science, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), cell and gene therapy

Avantor, a global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the life sciences, advanced technologies and applied materials industries, announced the expansion of the company’s Bridgewater, NJ (USA) innovation center. Located close to biotech companies, the site now has nearly double the laboratory and support space.

Bioprocessing efficiency that doesn’t compromise quality continues to be a top priority for the biopharma industry. At the same time, it’s critical to meet increasingly stringent global regulatory standards.

“Innovation is about solving customer problems in a rapidly progressing biotechnology environment using contemporary technologies and thinking,” said Dr. Ger Brophy, Executive Vice President, Biopharma Production at Avantor. “We collaborate with our customers from their initial discovery and development activities through scale-up and commercialization. Our solutions support industry downward cost pressure by emphasizing supply chain efficiency and improving production process performance.”

Avantor’s expanded innovation center enhances the Company’s R&D support for customized product and bioprocess development, and custom cell and gene therapy reagent manufacturing to support customers’ therapeutic products that are developed for advancements in personalized medicine.

The site capabilities support new bioprocessing products designed to help minimize risk of contamination and variability for cell and gene therapy (C&GT), monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and vaccines, including high purity products, single-use solutions and small volume cGMP reagents in single use bags. The site developed Avantor’s recently launched novel J.T.Baker BAKERBOND PROchievA recombinant protein A resin for purifying monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and other complex molecules.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are used in a wide variety of clinical indications, including asthma, cancer, Crohn’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis, and most recently being tested for use as a treatment for COVID-19 according to the National Institutes for Health (NIH).

The Bridgewater innovation center expansion follows the December 2019 opening of Avantor’s innovation and customer support center in Shanghai, China.