Intensified and high-performing biopharma processes have raised the bar on the requirements for fully defined and non-animal-derived cell culture media ingredients used in the production of therapeutic proteins or viral vectors. Many of the world’s largest and most innovative biopharmaceutical companies partner with Evonik to optimize their media platforms and processes. Our broad portfolio of cell culture ingredients and related services leverages six decades of industry leadership in highly purified amino acids. We have a strong backward integration into starting materials and supply from trusted manufacturing sites in Europe and Asia.

In addition to our robust pharmaceutical-grade quality system, cell culture customers can rely on our deep technical expertise across chemistry, biotechnology, product purification and formulation development. Regardless of your research, production or clinical application requirements, we are ready to serve as a strong, flexible and dependable partner to help you reduce risk, improve reproducibility, boost productivity and strengthen supply security.

Evonik offers high-quality cell culture solutions to pharmaceutical and biotech companies to help them boost cell culture performance in the manufacturing of therapeutic proteins like monoclonal antibodies, as well as in the production of viral vectors such as the adeno associated viral (AAV) vectors for gene therapy. Commercially proven for reliable media performance across countless biological programs, our cQrex^® portfolio features a range of peptides and keto acids designed to address key issues in mammalian cell culture. The basis for such outcomes is our high-quality and non-animal derived amino acids, which have earned the industry’s finest reputation for batch-to-batch reproducibility at any clinical or commercial scale.

As a solution provider, Evonik keeps extending its cell culture portfolio to meet the diverse needs of the biopharmaceutical industry. We now offer the plant-derived cholesterol PhytoChol® Biopharma, which has been especially developed for use in animal-free cell culture media formulation, for example in chemically defined media which do not use fetal bovine serum (FBS). In addition, specialty carbohydrates like D-Mannose can be used as alternative energy sources and building blocks for intracellular protein glycosylation, enabling a higher flexibility in the production of therapeutic proteins.

All these cell culture ingredients are non-animal derived, readily available at commercial scale and can be customized to address specific project needs.

cQrex® is Evonik’s market-leading brand of peptides which have been developed to provide customers with innovative solutions to the most challenging problems encountered with certain amino acids in high-performing cell culture processes and media formulations. Based on their superior chemical stability, solubility, and metabolic bioavailability, they have become essential tools in media development.

As an alternative to L-glutamine, L-tyrosine and L-cystine, which can be chemically reactive and unstable or not soluble enough at neutral pH, a range of highly stable and soluble peptides is available to spice up the media formulation and allow a greater flexibility in media design:

• cQrex® GQ (Glycyl-L-Glutamine hydrate)
• cQrex® AQ (L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine)
• cQrex® GY (Glycyl-L-Tyrosine dihydrate)
• cQrex® AY (L-Alanyl-L-Tyrosine dihydrate)
• cQrex® AC (N,N’-di-L-Alanyl-L-Cystine)
• cQrex® KC (N,N’-di-L-Lysyl-L-Cystine dihydrochloride)

Their functional superiority enables them to serve as a full replacement of respective amino acids or as supplement to existing media formulations. They help media and process developers to overcome limitations in media formulations, support  process intensification and simplification and eventually contribute to increased overall bioprocess productivity.

The cQrex® portfolio also includes:

• cQrex® AKG (α-Ketoglutaric acid)
• cQrex® Carnosine (β-Alanyl-L-Histidine)

cQrex® AKG is a titer-enhancing additive to protect cells against oxidative damage, whilst cQrex® Carnosine is an antioxidant peptide which helps to extend cellular viability in primary and stem cell cultivation.

Irrespective of the cell culture system or cell line you work on, we use our decades of expertise providing the highest quality products for regulated markets to equip you with the nutrients your cell culture medium needs to thrive. We also support implementation by offering application guidelines and support, product documentation and a range of regulatory and quality services for standard and custom products.