Medipost to launch stem cell bank establishment service using Korean-made culture medium in November

[Financial News] Medipost is introducing a service to establish stem cell banks using Korean-made culture medium that excludes animal-derived components, as it moves to expand its contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) business for cell and gene therapies.
Medipost said on the 28th that it will launch in November a service to establish animal-origin-free (AOF) stem cell banks using Korean-made chemically defined medium. The service will use CellCor, a chemically defined medium developed by Xcell Therapeutics, a specialist culture media company.
A cell bank is a facility or system that stores and manages, at a consistent level of quality, cells used in the development and production of cell and gene therapies. Ensuring the safety and uniformity of initial cells is important for quality control in subsequent processes. Because using animal-derived components can pose contamination risks and lead to variability in raw materials, the importance of culture technologies that exclude them is growing.
CellCor is a chemically defined medium formulated with clearly specified ingredients and no animal- or human-derived substances. It was also used as a material for transitioning to Korean-made culture medium in the project to commercialize Medipost's stem cell therapy Cartistem in Japan.
The two companies have jointly validated chemically defined media since 2020. After Medipost was selected in 2023 as a leading company in materials, parts and equipment by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, it continued developing related technologies. This service is an example of commercializing technology secured through a national project on culture media that replace animal-derived components. The project runs from September 2023 to December 2026.
The service covers various cell sources, including stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood, umbilical cords and adipose tissue. A cell bank consists of a master cell bank (MCB), which stores the initial source cells, and a working cell bank (WCB), which is used for production based on those cells. Medipost plans to adjust fill specifications, such as vial volume and cell count, according to each client's development stage and requirements.
Medipost plans to expand its CDMO business targeting domestic and international companies developing cell and gene therapies by combining its Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-based production expertise with Xcell Therapeutics' culture media technology.

[email protected] Sang-hee Jung Reporter