PEPTIDES & PROTEINS
fulfils the company’s specific requirements for chemistry, biology and analytics.
The deck of a Tecan liquid handling robot at Isogenica’s Chesterford Research Park automation facility.
solid tumours. The project utilises Lonza’s expertise in both antibody production and drug conjugation.
Lonza will initiate process development and cGMP manufacturing for Genmab’s monoclonal antibody HuMax-TF™ in its Slough, UK facility. This antibody has been expressed by Genmab in Lonza’s GS Gene Expression System™. The naked antibody will be conjugated by Lonza at its ADC plant in Visp, Switzerland to a cytotoxic drug in order to form the antibody drug conjugate HuMax- TF, which utilises technology licensed from Seattle Genetics, a US biotechnology company focused on developing antibody- based therapies.
Dr Reddy’s expands R&D centre Last April, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories opened its newly expanded Chirotech Technology Centre at Cambridge Science Park, UK where Chirotech has been based for the past 20 years. The new 33,000 sq ft facility is purpose-built for laboratories and offices and
The facility adds to core capabilities in biocatalysis and chemocatalysis, and builds capabilities in fast-growing segments of the company’s business including Activated mPEGs and peptides, as well as enabling development of other areas of expertise in chemistry
and processing for application in the pharmaceutical industry. The new facility is part of the Custom Pharmaceutical Services (CPS) Business Unit of Dr. Reddy’s and will offer these expanded services to customers worldwide.
Unigene and Nordic Bioscience peptide therapeutics collaboration
Unigene Laboratories, Inc is a specialist in the design, delivery, manufacture and development of peptide-based therapeutics and is building a portfolio of proprietary partnerships in this drug class based on its Peptelligence™ platform. Core Peptelligence assets include proprietary oral and nasal peptide delivery technologies, and proprietary, high-yield, scalable and reproducible E. coli- based manufacturing technologies. In October, the company announced plans to establish a Joint Development Vehicle (JDV) with Nordic Bioscience to progress up to three of Unigene’s internally developed, proprietary calcitonin analogues to Phase 2 proof-of-concept in humans for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Unigene and Nordic will each own 50 per cent of the resulting JDV. Since its
incorporation in 1989, Nordic Bioscience has worked on innovative drug development programmes and has developed an in-house biomarker platform that measures protein fingerprints.
Performing product analysis in one of PolyTherics’ laboratories. 18 sp2
November/December 2011
In exchange for its 50 per cent ownership interest, Unigene will
license, on an exclusive royalty-free basis, up to three proprietary calcitonin analogues. In addition to the licence grant, the company will supply the analogues selected for development by the JDV for preclinical studies and manufacture quantities of the selected lead analogue for clinical trials. In exchange for its 50 per cent ownership of the JDV, Nordic Bioscience is responsible for conducting and fully funding all preclinical, toxicology and clinical development up to Phase 2 proof-of-concept for the type 2 diabetes indication.
PolyTherics raises further funding PolyTherics has raised further funding amounting to £2.15 million to enable commercialisation of a number of technologies for pharmaceutical development. The company provides technology solutions to biopharmaceutical companies for the improvement of protein- and peptide-based drugs, and will use the funds to apply its proprietary polymer-protein conjugation technologies to an expanding range of proteins and peptides and to pursue new applications of the technologies. The financing round was led by Imperial Innovations Group plc, with participation from existing investor The Capital Fund, managed by YFM Equity Partners, and new investor Proven Health VCT PLC. The new investment follows on previous financing rounds in 2007 and 2010 which raised £5.3 million from Imperial Innovations, Longbow Capital and The Capital Fund. PolyTherics has successfully applied its PEGylation technology for half-life extension to a range of proteins and peptides, including interferons, blood factors and a variety of antibody formats, including antibody fragments (Fabs) and single-chain antibodies (scFv), as well as to novel protein scaffolds. The company’s TheraPEG™ technology is designed to avoid the need to reengineer the protein sequence and achieves site-specific conjugation in a highly efficient process. In June, the company was granted a second patent for the TheraPEG technology by the US Patent Office.
Further information
For further information on the companies featured in this article visit the following websites:
www.isogenica.com www.crbdiscovery.com www.lonza.com www.drreddys.com www.unigene.com www.polytherics.co.uk
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