Alliance targets orthogonal virus inactivation

12/01/2008

By George Miller

Two German companies are cooperating to manufacture and market technology used to inactivate viruses in biopharmaceutical products.

The collaboration, which has a proprietary ultraviolet-C (UVC) irradiation technique at its core, adds a third virus-inactivation method to the Sartorius Stedim Biotech GmbH (Goettingen) portfolio.

The technique, called UVivatec technology by developer Bayer Technology Services GmbH (BTS; Leverkusen), inactivates such small, non-enveloped viruses as parvoviruses, a version of which causes fifth disease.

“The challenge with small envelope viruses is that they do not die unless you go to pH 1 or so,” says Suma Ray, PhD, process development scientist for viral clearance and cell line development in the global purification technologies group at Sartorius Stedim Biotech. “That’s why we need another method: UVC irradiation.”

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