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Cell line development platform for SMEs to reduce the length and cost of biologic drug development

Objective

Biologic drugs ($160+ billion market) provide better long-term health outcomes with fewer side effects than many traditional drugs. However, due to high development and production costs, these drugs are 20x more expensive, on average, limiting the access to these therapies and burdening healthcare systems. To a great extent, this is because traditionally flexible and creative biotech SMEs currently lack rational tools for mammalian cell line development (most of the biologic drugs are produced in mammalian cell lines), meaning that large investment in terms of capital and time is required to make a production cell line.

ICF, an established player in the biotechnology industry, develops a technology for more efficient development of mammalian cell lines for high-yield protein production. It reduces the need for robotic systems and high-throughput screening facilities (€900 000 -> €200 000), the time (6-12 months -> 3) and cost (€100 000 -> €50 000) of cell line development. These advantages stem from specific landing platforms, predefined integration sites, recombination-dependent insertion and amplification of expression units. The technology will enable biotech SMEs to develop the process of production of new biologic drugs at lower costs and faster, eventually enabling biologic drugs to penetrate more cost-sensitive indications and target groups.

IcoCell project is aimed at optimizing the landing platform, generating cell lines compatible with process of development of industrial cell factories, generating regulatory documentation, preparing standard operating procedures, demonstrating the production of different types of proteins and implementing initial exploitation activities.

Cell line development market is expected to grow at CAGR of 12.8% (2014-2022) and the market for cell line development to produce therapeutic proteins exceeds €900M. Commercialization of IcoCell technology will mean breakthrough for ICF, increasing revenues by an estimated €26M in 2021

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2014-2015

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Coordinator

ICOSAGEN CELL FACTORY OU
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 129 800,00
Address
EERIKA TEE 1
61713 Kambja Vald
Estonia

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Eesti Eesti Lõuna-Eesti
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 614 000,00
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