4 December 2020 - - US-based CHO Plus, an early-stage innovation company developing technology to vastly increase the productivity of cells used to manufacture therapeutic proteins, has entered into a research collaboration agreement with US-based healthcare company Johnson and Johnson's (NYSE: JNJ) Janssen Biotech, Inc business, the company said.

This agreement will allow CHO Plus to demonstrate commercial feasibility of its technology, while also developing several custom projects for Janssen.

Under the agreement terms, Janssen will have the non-exclusive right to license CHO Plus technology for production of its therapeutic proteins. The agreement was facilitated by Johnson and Johnson Innovation.

CHO Plus laboratories are currently located at the Johnson and Johnson Innovation JLABS incubator in South San Francisco, CA.

CHO Plus was founded in 2014 with the mission of increasing the productivity of cells used for manufacturing life-saving therapeutic proteins for treating human disease (such as antibodies for the treatment of cancer).

CHO Plus has developed patented cell engineering technology to increase the amount of protein-producing "machinery" (i.e. endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus) within each cell. Initial studies demonstrate the potential for increasing cell productivity by up to 450%.