WuXi Advanced Therapies (WuXi ATU), a wholly owned subsidiary of China-based WuXi AppTec, has announced a licensing agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

Under this agreement, WuXi ATU will license to Janssen its TESSA technology, a high-performance system that can produce 10 times more adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors than traditional AAV manufacturing systems. Janssen will also have access to work on WuXi ATU's proprietary clonal suspension HEK293 cell line. This agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

AAV vectors are commonly used for the delivery of gene therapies to patients due to their ability to transduce numerous cell and tissue types. WuXi ATU's TESSA technology responds to industry demand for large scale AAV manufacturing by producing higher quality AAV particles more efficiently. WuXi ATU has also successfully scaled up the TESSA technology to 200L; this achieved a 10-fold higher yield and a significantly higher percentage of full AAV capsids, greatly reducing overall AAV production costs compared to traditional plasmid-based AAV production systems.