The deal will see a pharma firm license Arecor’s Arestat platform to develop formulations of certain proprietary biosimilar products, after exercising the option on a multi-product research agreement deal signed in 2015.
Like the firm involved and the molecules being developed, financial details were not divulged. However, Arencor said this was the first such license conversion and the Cambridge, UK-based firm will be entitled to receive payments on relevant development milestones and royalties on sales.
The Arestat platform delivers liquid biopharmaceuticals through proprietary formulation approaches intended to improve the aqueous stability of proteins and peptides.
CSO Jan Jezek told us the tech “uses novel scientific insights and state-of-the-art computational approaches to design unique mixtures of formulation ingredients that maintain protein-based therapeutics in optimal balance, thus ensuring their excellent stability during storage, shipments and use.”
He added this allows a “considerably greater” level of stability than achieved by conventional formulation approaches.
Furthermore the platform is particularly useful for biosimilars “as the considerably increased stability provides a competitive advantage in an increasingly crowded market by improving patient convenience and logistics,” Jezek said.
“In addition, the innovative nature of the technology ensures excellent basis for patent protection, which is another increasingly desirable attribute of biopharmaceutical products.”