Exactmer Partners with Asahi Kasei Bioprocess to Accelerate Growth of Nanostar Sieving Technology for Large-scale Oligo Manufacturing

LONDON — August 8th, 2024 — Oligonucleotide-based therapies have emerged as powerful tools in modern medicine, with several FDA-approved treatments already on the market. The global multibillion-dollar oligonucleotide synthesis market is expected to continue expanding at double-digit growth rates over the coming years as drug manufacturers look for new ways to advance life-saving therapeutics.

Exactmer, a pioneer in polymer synthesis and manufacturing services, has received investment from Asahi Kasei Medical (AKM) to accelerate the growth of its innovative “Nanostar Sieving” technology within the oligonucleotide space. In conjunction with the investment, Exactmer and Asahi Kasei Bioprocess, part of Asahi Kasei Medical, offering technology platforms for oligonucleotide synthesis, have agreed to explore technical collaboration aimed at rapidly scaling Exactmer’s technology to meet emerging customer applications.

Exactmer’s proprietary platform technology, Nanostar Sieving, allows large-scale manufacturing of exact polymers, including oligonucleotides, fully in solution. This innovative approach overcomes current limitations in oligonucleotide production, making advanced therapies more accessible to patients in need.

“Asahi Kasei Bioprocess’ support will be instrumental in scaling our Nanostar Sieving technology and helping us address the growing demand for oligonucleotide-based therapies that contribute to the next wave of breakthrough treatments,” said Andrew Livingston, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Exactmer.

The investment and technical collaboration will support the commercial development of large-scale synthesis solutions that significantly reduce solvent usage, addressing both economic and environmental concerns in oligonucleotide pharmaceutical manufacturing. Both Exactmer and Asahi Kasei Bioprocess are committed to advancing the field of oligonucleotide therapeutics and look forward to the positive impact this partnership will have on the industry and patient care.

“This groundbreaking technology has the potential to transform how these critical therapeutics are manufactured, offering increased efficiency, reduced costs, and improved environmental sustainability,” said Chris Rombach, Executive Vice President at Asahi Kasei Bioprocess. He added: “With this investment and the planned collaboration – both of which align with Asahi Kasei Bioprocess’ mission to help customers achieve long term productivity gains by pushing the boundary of tomorrow’s technology today – we’re jointly accelerating our growth in the oligonucleotide synthesis market by leveraging Exactmer’s technology to build cutting-edge equipment and provide consultative expertise to customers.”

Learn more about how Nanostar Sieving works.

 

About Exactmer

Exactmer is a life sciences company with the mission to manufacture exact polymeric pharmaceuticals, enabling advanced therapies to be provided to all patients in need. Exactmer specializes in the synthesis of biopolymers (oligonucleotides, peptides) and synthetic polymers (polyethylene glycols) using its patented Nanostar Sieving Technology, which allows the synthesis of polymers with exactly defined monomer sequences in liquid phase. Exactmer produces polymers of unprecedented precision by using this completely new approach, opening the way to manufacture at scale supremely accurate polymers for use as pharmaceuticals. For more information please visit: https://exactmer.com/.

 

About Asahi Kasei

The Asahi Kasei Group contributes to life and living for people around the world. Since its foundation in 1922, it has consistently grown its business portfolio to meet the evolving needs of every age. Now with more than 49,000 employees worldwide, it aims to provide solutions to the world’s sustainability challenges through its three business sectors of Health Care, Homes, and Material. Asahi Kasei Medical is a core operating company in the group’s Health Care sector. Its bioprocess business arm – Asahi Kasei Bioprocess – is devoted to solving product safety, efficiency, and purity challenges within the pharmaceutical and bioprocessing industries. Along with its technology platforms for oligonucleotide synthesis, buffer formulation, chromatography and filtration, its bioprocess systems, columns and automation solutions advance GMP manufacturing of critical drug substances around the world. For more information, please visit: https://fluidmgmt.ak-bio.com. 

Asahi Kasei Bioprocess – Built with pride, built with quality, built to exceed expectations. “Built for You.”

 

Contact

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Accelerating Your Innovation Through Powerful Partnering

The SCOUT project, launched by CPI to help Scottish SMEs overcome challenges of innovation, hosted a webinar on February 9th 2022, centred on ‘Powerful Partnering’. At this event, Andrew Livingston outlined Exactmer’s journey and the successful partnership that supported its development.

In 2021, Exactmer became a central part of Grand Challenge 3, from the new Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC), aimed at collaboratively revolutionising the manufacture of oligonucleotides. The collaboration, which includes AstraZeneca and Novartis, enables the partners to utilise their combined expertise across scale-up, analytics, and process development, ultimately transforming the oligonucleotide supply chain. The MMIC employs a ​‘Grand Challenge’ model, consisting of collaborative projects that bring together effective partnerships to address key issues raised by pharmaceutical industry consortia.

Andrew was joined by representatives from the MMIC, as well as Astra Zeneca’s Terry Reed, and Barrie Cassey from CPI. The webinar explored the opportunities and challenges encountered in developing successful partnerships, with the stakeholders sharing insights and experiences that help accelerate innovation process.

You can catch the webinar on-demand, here.

Alnylam becomes a partner in the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre

Exactmer is delighted to welcome Alnylam Pharmaceuticals as a partner to the collaboration with the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre, revolutionising oligonucleotide manufacturing. Together with CPI, AstraZeneca, and Novartis, we’re working together to overcome barriers to the scalable, affordable, and sustainable manufacture of oligonucleotides.

See the full press release on the CPI website.

 

UK collaboration to revolutionise oligonucleotide medicines manufacturing

Exactmer is thrilled to announce a collaboration with AstraZeneca, Novartis, CPI and UK Research and Innovation aimed to revolutionise oligonucleotide medicines manufacturing.

Oligonucleotide drugs work by interfering with how genes are expressed and are now being explored to treat diseases affecting large patient populations, however their use is currently limited by inefficient manufacturing processes. This collaboration, known as Grand Challenge 3, at the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre, aims to develop a cost effective, sustainable and scalable manufacturing method for oligonucleotide medicines. Inclisiran, an oligonucleotide drug from Novartis, would be the first medicine to be manufactured at scale as a result of this collaboration. AstraZeneca has a large pipeline of oligonucleotide therapies which will also benefit from the results of this collaboration.

Exactmer will lead the initial phase of the project focusing on both the development of scale-up strategies for liquid phase processes and on a proof-of-concept programme. The collaboration will utilise Nanostar Sieving technology to enhance the efficiency and yield of oligonucleotide manufacturing processes and reduce the manufacturing costs, enhancing the potential for large-scale manufacturing of oligonucleotide drugs.

Read the full press release on the CPI website.