Date: 2012-01-20
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: Warwick Effect Polymers (UK)
Acquiring company: PolyTherics (UK)
Amount: undisclosed
Terms: PolyTherics, a provider of solutions to biopharmaceutical companies for the improvement of protein and peptide based drugs, has announced the acquisition of Warwick Effect Polymers (“WEP”), a provider of specialty biopolymers for the modification of biological products.
This acquisition broadens its technology capabilities for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company partners. WEP has developed two proprietary biopolymer technologies, PolyPEG® and GlycoPol®, both of which are based on the leading academic work of Professor David Haddleton of the University of Warwick utilising Living Radical Polymerisation.
PolyPEG® is a novel low viscosity comb polymer for extending the duration of action of biopharmaceuticals and which is especially applicable to high concentration protein products. GlycoPol® is a novel glycopolymer for targeting the delivery of therapeutic agents, including RNAi and aptamer molecules, to specific glycan receptors on cells and has the potential to facilitate their intracellular uptake.
PolyTherics’ proprietary conjugation technologies, TheraPEG™, CyPEG™ and HiPEG™, have been used extensively to attach polymers, mainly poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG), to specific sites on proteins and peptides to extend their duration of action and, more recently, to produce antibody drug conjugates for delivery of imaging agents or cytotoxic drugs to target cells. PolyPEG® and GlycoPol® provide PolyTherics with additional polymers to use in its collaborations with partners for the development of better biopharmaceuticals.
Details:
Related: Protein and peptide-based drugs
