Paris, FRANCE - October, 25 2021 – PathoQuest, a pioneer in the quality control of biologics using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), announced today that it has been awarded €0.85M from the French Investment Program for the Future (Programme d’Investissement d’Avenir - PIA 4). This financing will enable PathoQuest to expand its range of services with NGS-based quality control (QC) tests for the genetic characterization of biologics at a GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) grade. With this expertise and industrial know-how, PathoQuest strengthens its position as a leader in NGS-based QC of biologics and contributes to the competitiveness of the French biomanufacturing industry of innovative medicines.

PathoQuest is already internationally renowned as a leader in NGS-based QC for viral safety testing, to ensure the absence of viral contamination during the bioproduction of biologics and innovative therapies.

Through the support of PIA 4 program, the company is adding a cutting-edge service to its offering. The project, called NGS-QC, aims to develop NGS-based genetic characterization tests to improve the QC and safety of bioproduction of innovative medicines. These tests will ensure that the cell lines used for drug biomanufacturing are stable and clonal, in compliance with the regulatory agencies and the international guidelines ICH Q5B and ICH Q5D. Based on NGS, such tests guarantee better detection thresholds, reduced bias, agnostic analysis and faster results compared to traditional methods.

“By broadening the range of NGS applications from viral safety testing to gene characterization, PathoQuest foresees the evolution of quality control regulations for biologics and stands out as leader in a fast-growing market”, stated Jean-François BREPSON , CEO of PathoQuest.

PathoQuest's original and proprietary approach to QC, which combines the strength of NGS technology with cutting-edge bioinformatics expertise, is now meeting the needs of pharmaceutical companies developing increasingly innovative and sophisticated therapies, in particular gene therapies, cell therapies and vaccines, for which traditional QC tests are reaching their limits. PathoQuest’s innovative offer of QC tests should enable biopharmaceutical companies and biotechs to have at their disposal safer, faster and more cost-effective means of releasing batches of innovative drugs and therapies.