Towards a Condensed Platform for Protein Aggregation Profiling

Malvern Panalytical has announced the launch of a collaborative project which aims to support the development of existing and next generation biopharmaceutical products. The company led a competitive funding application for analytical technologies for biopharmaceutical development which drew participation from leading bioscience organisations and responds to current industry challenges surrounding aggregation characterization. The successful bid resulted in funding of the associated costs of £1 million for the 3-year-long project, with a grant from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

From June 1st, 2017, Malvern Panalytical began leading a working consortium comprising the following partner organisations: The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), Paraytec Ltd., the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), and GSK, MedImmune and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies representing the biopharmaceutical industry.

The costs associated with the development and production of safe and effective biopharmaceuticals continue to limit their vast potential in treating and preventing disease. Malvern Panalytical has long been involved in addressing the specific analytical challenges of this field, where biomolecule stability and successful formulation are paramount. The company has tailored its proven solutions to the needs of biological molecules, developed ground-breaking new technologies and been involved in other industry-wide collaborations to advance biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing knowledge. Malvern Panalytical’s evolving suite of instruments delivers an array of biophysical information, helping biopharmaceutical developers reduce risk and increase efficiency and speed to market.

Protein-based pharmaceuticals are often susceptible to instability that can cause drug molecules to aggregate, which may result in a reduction of their therapeutic effectiveness and possibly in unwanted side-effects in the patient. Aggregation is therefore viewed as a high-risk issue in biopharmaceutical development. With the new analytical technology that will result from this collaborative project, the consortium aims to attenuate the risks associated with aggregation to ensure the delivery of safe and cost-effective drugs in the future.

Dr. Steve Carrington, Head of Biophysical Characterization at Malvern Panalytical, said: “The collaborative consortium leading this project has been specifically gathered together to provide expertise across all stages of biopharmaceutical discovery and development, in order to address the challenges of developing the wider scope of relevant and rationalized aggregation analytics.”

“We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with our partners in the biopharmaceutical industry, and also in small business and academia, on such an important project. Our industrial colleagues are providing invaluable insight into the development challenges they as biopharmaceutical developers face, then providing the facility to test new solutions in real-world scenarios.” added Dr. Carrington.

“Our collaboration with the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at UCLan will help inspire and engage the scientists of the future, as they see for themselves how new analytical technology can be applied to understand the behavior of novel drugs at near-in vivo conditions,” said Dr. Oksana Barker, Senior Development Scientist at Malvern Panalytical.

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