Last month, Nordmark Pharma GmbH announced that its Biochemicals division will discontinue supplying its GMP-grade collagenase and neutral protease products, with supply ending when inventory is depleted or by December 31, 2029.
If you have an application that uses Nordmark’s GMP-grade products and need to replace this material, contact VitaCyte or its European distributor, PELOBiotech GmbH. VitaCyte’s purpose & mission are “to supply consistent and rigorously characterized enzymes used in cell recovery methods and provide timely support to ensure efficient use of these products.” Francis Dwulet and Bob McCarthy, co-founders of VitaCyte, support this commitment. They were key members of the project team that developed the first purified collagenase-protease enzyme mixture designed for a cell recovery application at Boehringer Mannheim Biochemicals in Indianapolis. Liberase™ HI Purified Enzyme Blend contributed indirectly to the success of the Edmonton Protocol, which demonstrated that human islet transplantation effectively managed hypoglycemic unawareness in adult brittle diabetic patients. Liberase HI overcame the “collagenase problem,” since before Liberase HI, islet transplantation scientists spent as much time screening for “good lots” of traditional collagenase products as they did performing clinical studies.
VitaCyte made numerous scientific contributions to improve the understanding of how collagenase and protease enzymes dissociate tissue. In 2011, McCarthy et al. proposed a mechanism of action for collagenase-mediated tissue dissociation. An updated version of this mechanism can be seen in a two-minute video on VitaCyte’s website, which provides more detail.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact VitaCyte or PELOBiotech for more information on VitaCyte’s GMP products.