Researchers at the University of Edinburgh claim to have found a production method which will substantially decrease the costs of manufacturing cancer and arthritis drugs.
By removing dead cells using the new technique, the efficiency of production of protein-based medication from cell cultures can be improved by more than 100 per cent, according to the team.
The method uses magnets to draw out the dead cells which impair the productivity of living ones. This makes the process quicker and cheaper, benefitting from a reduction in labour-intensive procedures and replacing more costly technology designed for the same purpose. It is a more proficient practice in that, unlike existing alternatives, healthy cells are not harmed when dead ones are extracted.
Professor Chris Gregory from the Centre for Inflammation Research said: “Not only will this make the production of drugs more efficient, but it will also streamline research into new medicines which uses cell culture.”
The technology will be marketed through a purpose-created company, Immunosolv.
