PERCIVIA PER.C6® Development Center Grand Opening

Crucell and DSM have opened their PERCIVIA PER.C6® Development Center, on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006, 1 Hampshire Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The PERCIVIA Center was conceived and designed to provide turnkey solutions for the production of pharmaceutical proteins to the biotech industry utilizing the PER.C6® human cell line. The PER.C6® cell line was created especially for biopharmaceutical production, and has been specifically designed to produce recombinant proteins - currently a US $35 billion industry. With over 20 companies licensing the technology for protein production, the PER.C6® cell line is the choice for many biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Approximately 150 representatives from the world-wide biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industries attended the grand opening event. Introductory presentations were made by Ronald Brus, President & CEO, Crucell N.V., Leendert Staal, CEO, DSM Pharmaceutical Products and Marco Cacciuttolo, CEO, PERCIVIA.

"PERCIVIA's state-of-the-art facility generates the know-how and support for the use of PER.C6® cells in the manufacturing of human therapeutic proteins," said Dr. Marco Cacciuttolo, Chief Executive Officer of PERCIVIA. "With over 20 companies licensing the technology for protein and monoclonal antibody production, we anticipate that the PER.C6® cell line is quickly becoming the leading choice for many biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and PERCIVIA is well-positioned to support this growing market." "The tremendous promise and potential of PER.C6® technology has become apparent not only from our own work, but particularly from customer and licensee feedback," commented Leendert Staal, Chief Executive Officer of DSM Pharmaceutical Products. "This R&D center, dedicated to the further development of the PER.C6® technology platform, is playing a key role in establishing the PER.C6® cell line as a new standard in the production of human therapeutic proteins."

Ronald H.P. Brus, President & CEO of Crucell added: "Our current and future PER.C6® technology licensees will be able to continuously benefit from the know-how generated in the PERCIVIA PER.C6® Development Center. The recombinant protein market is very large and still growing, and we believe that this center provides an important service to licensees in this progressive industry."