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Innovative animal-free cell culture improves consistency, safety and efficiency 

InVitria, a division of Ventria Bioscience, has announced the launch of a new media formulation service at the international BIO-Europe conference in Berlin, Germany. Leveraging Ventria's proprietary ExpressTec technology, InVitria has developed and commercialized eight recombinant proteins and cell culture media supplements made in a completely animal-free system. Animal-component based serum, albumin, and transferrin have long been popular ingredients in many biological processes. However, animal products possess risks for transmitting infectious agents and viruses, as well as inducing high batch-to-batch production variation. Given these risks, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) discourage the use of animal-based components in drug manufacturing. 

Leveraging this animal free expression system as well as expertise in incorporating these recombinant proteins, InVitria now offers access to these tools to generate custom animal component free cell culture media formulations for end users. InVitria works directly with clients to optimize animal free formulations as well as conversion of these formulations to full cGMP media products.  

"The data is decisively compelling. InVitria's animal-free media formulation performance is equivalent or better than xeno and xeno-free formulations", said Scott Deeter, CEO at InVitria. "Not only is our media safer and performs better, it is inherently recombinant and maintains desired cell phenotype and function. We are excited to bring our media formulation service to market and have our customers realize the true benefits of animal-free component media in their research and in the future commercialization of their products." 

InVitria was founded in 2009 on the idea there was a safer, more consistent, and overall better way to grow cells used in bio manufacturing and cell therapy than using undefined hydrolysates or animal-sourced serum proteins. Since then, InVitria has become a global leader in developing and commercializing animal-free cell culture supplements and reagents used throughout the life science industry in applications such as regenerative medicine, cellular therapy, bio manufacturing, vaccines, diagnostics, and medical devices. Industry, research institutions, and even philanthropic foundations funding life-saving therapeutics are embracing the benefits of animal-free media components.

Ventria Bioscience recently received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop novel therapeutics using Ventria's safe, cost-effective, and scalable ExpressTec platform. The funding serves as true testament to the powerful benefits of animal-free cell cultures, both from product quality and production scalability perspectives. 

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