CAMBRIDGE, England, & MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE: HZD) (“Horizon”, “the Company” or “the Group”), a global leader in the application of gene editing and gene modulation for cell line engineering, today announced that TrueBinding, Inc. (“TrueBinding”, formerly Immutics, Inc.), a biopharmaceutical company, has signed a set of commercial licenses for Horizon’s cGMP-compliant CHOSOURCE™ platform. TrueBinding will use the platform for the development and commercialization of multiple biotherapeutic products for applications in immuno-oncology and other disease areas with great unmet medical need.

Horizon’s CHOSOURCE platform includes a gene-edited Glutamine Synthetase (“GS”) knockout Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) K1 cell line, a well-established GS expression system recognized in the industry and by regulators as suitable for high-yield biomanufacturing. TrueBinding has successfully used this platform to develop stable, antibody-expressing cell lines in a proof-of-concept study and will now implement this to support further antibody drug development through commercial manufacturing.

“We are delighted TrueBinding has placed its trust in the capabilities of Horizon’s CHOSOURCE expression platform to support its research and development efforts,” commented Jesús Zurdo, Global Head Bioproduction Business Unit, Horizon Discovery. “Horizon is fully committed to supporting innovative organizations of all sizes, from non-profit organizations and early stage startups to clinical stage biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies, in their journey to develop much-needed novel therapeutic products using our expression platform.”

Dr. Fan Chen, SVP of CMC, TrueBinding, explained: “Horizon’s CHOSOURCE platform provides a robust system for generating high protein expression stable cell lines to support TrueBinding antibody drug development through commercial manufacturing. We are very pleased with current program results and move to further collaboration with Horizon Discovery.”

Horizon’s proprietary GS knockout CHO line and protocols facilitate the development of stable cell lines for the expression of antibodies and other recombinant proteins. The Company also licenses a CHO expression system to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and biosimilar companies, as well as contract manufacturing organizations. To enable companies to move from the DNA sequence of their potential biotherapeutic to clinical manufacturing as simply and rapidly as possible, the complete system includes the GS knockout CHO K1 cell line, a comprehensive package of supporting documentation, and an expression vector supplied under license from DNATwoPointO, Inc.

To date, CHOSOURCE has been licensed to 80 organizations globally, with at least seven confirmed biotherapeutics expressed in these cells having progressed to investigational new drug (IND) filings.

For further information on Horizon’s CHO expression system please visit: https://www.horizondiscovery.com/bioproduction/cho-cells

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