Reinnervate today announced the appointment of Classic Industries Europe for the commercial assembly and packaging of alvetex plates for 3D cell culture applications. Reinnervate is currently gearing up for the first launch of alvetex at the Cell-Based Assay conference in London on 22-23 November 2010.
Under the terms of the agreement, reinnervate will continue to manufacture alvetex at its new purpose-built research and production facility at NETPark near Sedgefield, UK. The final product will be assembled by Classic Industries Europe at its GMP production facility in nearby Barnard Castle then blister packed and sterilised in preparation for distribution and sale. Classic Industries Europe has been operating in County Durham for over 20 years and forms part of the US-headquartered Classic Industries Inc., a leading supplier of plastic components to the medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries worldwide.
Alvetex is a and proprietary scaffold that enables routine 3D cell culture in the lab, ie more akin to the way cells grow in tissues in the human body than conventional 2D cell culture technologies where cells grow in flat sheets. The use of alvetex-derived 3D cell cultures is expected to provide greater insight into how cells behave in the body in response to external factors (such as drug candidates) than is currently possible with existing technologies.
Alvetex is compatible with a variety of standard cell culture formats including multi-well plates and well inserts. Reinnervate will initially launch alvetex in a 12-well plate format, and is developing a range of formats for multiple, potential applications in academia and in the pharmaceutical and related sectors, including high-throughput drug screening. These products are designed to be available as ready-to-use, off-the-shelf products that can sit alongside existing consumable cell culture plastic-ware in laboratories.
Reinnervate has already begun discussions with major distributors of cell culture products in the UK and overseas to sell alvetex.
Ashley Cooper, CEO of reinnervate, commented: “The appointment of Classic Industries for the production of the alvetex 12-well plate is a major step towards the full commercial launch of our alvetex technology platform. Alvetex products are designed to enable the use of genuine 3D cell culture routinely in academic and industry laboratories around the world. To support the launch of alvetex we will be looking to recruit up to 30 new employees to rapidly expand our production and sales operations over the next 12 months.”
John Pearson, General Manager of Classic Industries Europe, added: “We are very pleased to be working with reinnervate to produce its innovative alvetex product range. We are now engaged in full commercial production of the alvetex 12-well plate and hope that this will represent the start of a strong and ongoing relationship between the two companies.”
Reinnervate
