TUSTIN, Calif. and MORGAN HILL, Calif., May 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avid Bioservices, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDMO) (NASDAQ:CDMOP), a dedicated biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) working to improve patient lives by providing high quality development and manufacturing services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and Aragen Bioscience, a leading contract research organization (CRO) focused on accelerating pre-clinical biologics product development, today announced a co-marketing agreement that will provide clients an integrated “sequence-to-manufacturing” service.  Under terms of the non-exclusive agreement, the companies will offer customers Aragen’s cell line development expertise integrated with Avid’s upstream and downstream process development and analytical services to drive efficiencies and reduce overall timelines for delivering CGMP bulk drug substances.

“With pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies focused on delivering their innovative medicines to patients as quickly as possible, this alliance aims to speed the entire CGMP manufacturing process by having a single, integrated team oversee a single, integrated project timeline with significant built-in process efficiencies,” said Timothy Compton, chief commercial officer of Avid. “We view this collaboration with Aragen as a significant win for current and future clients of both companies and we are excited to contribute our deep CDMO expertise to the partnership, particularly our more than 15 years of commercial product manufacturing experience.”

“I am excited about this partnership that will enable us to accelerate drug development timelines and deliver new biologic therapeutics to patients faster by integrating two best-in-class offerings to our customers,” said Axel Schleyer, CEO of Aragen. “Our services in discovery, cell line development, which includes our innovative RapTr™ platform, protein production and preclinical testing are a great match with Avid’s clinical and commercial manufacturing capabilities. We look forward to this collaboration that advances novel ideas into breakthrough medicines.”

About Avid Bioservices, Inc.

Avid Bioservices is a dedicated contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on development and CGMP manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products derived from mammalian cell culture. The company provides a comprehensive range of process development, high quality CGMP clinical and commercial manufacturing services for the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries. With over 25 years of experience producing monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins in batch, fed-batch and perfusion modes, Avid's services include CGMP clinical and commercial product manufacturing, purification, bulk packaging, stability testing and regulatory strategy, submission and support. The company also provides a variety of process development activities, including cell line development and optimization, cell culture and feed optimization, analytical methods development and product characterization. www.avidbio.com

About Aragen Bioscience, Inc.

Aragen Bioscience, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of GVK BIO, is a leading contract research organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Aragen Bioscience offers a diverse set of in vitro and in vivo services for the discovery, production, characterization, activity and efficacy assessment and development of biologic and diagnostic products. www.aragenbio.com

Contacts:

Stephanie Diaz (Investors)
Vida Strategic Partners
415-675-7401
sdiaz@vidasp.com

Tim Brons (Media)
Vida Strategic Partners
415-675-7402
tbrons@vidasp.com

Alexa Martinez
Aragen Bioscience, Inc.
408-201-3547
amartinez@aragenbio.com

Source: Avid Bioservices, Inc