Novozymes to provide drug-albumin conjugation platform in collaboration with ThioLogics

The deal will allow Novozymes to provide the pharma industry serum stable albumin drug conjugates with improved pharmacokinetic and/or targeting capabilities.

Under the deal, Novozymes’ customers will be given access to conjugation specialists, providing assurance that they will receive the highest level of support to design stable and efficacious drug candidates.

Novozymes Biopharma marketing director Dermot Pearson said combining the benefits of the company’s and ThioLogics’ technology platforms means that it can now work with more customers across a wider range of drug candidates.

"Together we are creating new opportunities for customers by providing them with a single access point to link Novozymes’ Veltis albumins and ThioLogics’ conjugation platform, to improve their products," Pearson said.

Exclusively marketed via Novozymes Biopharma, the collaboration will enable Novozymes to apply its technology to molecules that are not amenable to a genetic fusion approach, such as synthesized peptides and small molecules in oncology and rheumatoid arthritis.

Combination of the advantages of the two technologies will allow the versatile modification of these therapeutic molecules to yield well-defined, stable and consistent conjugates.

ThioLogics business development manager Chris Williams said, "We are delighted to announce ThioLogics’ unique collaboration with Novozymes, which will expand the capabilities of our technology platform beyond antibody drug conjugates."

ThioLogics one of the founders Professor Stephen Caddick said, "For the first time, the linking of our two platforms will make well-defined and stable albumin conjugation a reality, providing manufacturers with serum stable drug conjugates with tailored pharmacokinetics to maximize the therapeutic potential of their products."