INDUSTRIAL IMPACT, MEDICAL
Twist Bioscience | March 10, 2023
On March 9, 2023, Twist Bioscience Corporation, a leading firm providing high-quality synthetic DNA through its silicon platform, announced the launch of integrated antibody discovery services. This premium offering combines the company's synthetic libraries and AI machine learning with an in vivo immunization approach acquired through its acquisition of Abveris, also known as Twist Boston. This service provides customers with optimized, development-ready antibody candidates.
The combined team, now called Twist Biopharma Solutions, is led by Tracey Mullen, MBA, the senior vice president of biopharma for Twist Bioscience. This newly formed entity leverages years of industry expertise, scientific excellence, and proprietary technology to discover the best antibody candidate for therapeutic targets of interest.
Twist Biopharma Solutions offers an end-to-end workflow for centralized antibody discovery and optimization, including target validation, hit generation, lead selection, lead optimization, and lead characterization. Twist, supported by high-throughput DNA synthesis and IgG antibody production, constructs extensive and particular synthetic antibody libraries with discovery starting with either in vivo or in vitro diversity.
The newly integrated in vivo discovery approach from Abveris of single B cell screening and hybridoma discovery enables parallel paths where multiple technology methods can be leveraged to build a panel of highly diverse antibody leads with broad epitope coverage. In addition, this multi-pronged approach can increase the likelihood of discovering highly specific, high-affinity functional antibodies by sampling synthetic and natural diversity.
The South San Francisco and Boston biopharma teams were combined to create Twist Biopharma Solutions, led by Tracey Mullen. Aaron Sato, Ph.D., remains integrally involved in Twist Biopharma Solutions and, as a chief scientific officer of Twist Bioscience, extends his expertise across the organization. Tracey Mullen joined Twist Bioscience in November 2021 through the acquisition of Abveris. In April 2022, she took on the position of senior vice president of operations, driving the completion of the Factory of the Future in Wilsonville, Oregon, which began shipping products in January 2023. Before joining Twist, she served as CEO of Abveris and worked on the antibody discovery team at Biogen.
About Twist Bioscience
Twist Bioscience is a leading biotechnology company specializing in synthetic biology and genomics. It has developed a proprietary DNA synthesis platform that enables the production of custom-designed DNA strands faster, more accurately, and at a lower cost than traditional methods. In addition, Twist collaborates with partners across industries to develop customized DNA sequences for specific applications and offers a range of other products and services, such as oligonucleotides, synthetic genes, and custom panels for next-generation sequencing. The company has also developed a library of over 100 billion synthetic antibodies, which can be used for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
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MEDTECH, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
ATUM and Codiak | January 25, 2023
On January 24, 2023, ATUM, a global leader in bioengineering solutions, announced that it has signed a comprehensive licensing agreement with Codiak BioSciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, for the Leap-In Transposase® technology.
ATUM will grant Codiak access to its Leap-In Transposase® technology in order to create mammalian cells expressing exosomes engineered to deliver therapeutic payloads under the conditions of the agreement. The Leap-In technology is a comprehensive solution that integrates patented re-coding algorithms, unique genetic vector elements, and a transposon-based mechanism for efficiently inserting genetically stable elements into the genome.
"Through years of rigorous research and clinical validation we have created a platform for engineering and manufacturing therapeutic exosomes with various payloads on the surface or inside the lumen. We believe ATUM's transposase technology has the potential to effectively synergize with Codiak's engEx® Platform to further enhance loading these vesicles, making them more potent and reducing cost of goods," Commented Scott Estes, Ph.D., VP of Cell Line Development at Codiak.
(Source – Business Wire)
"Exosomes are bio vesicles that have the potential to fundamentally change drug delivery. We are proud and excited to license the Leap-In Transposase® technology to Codiak for the engineering of cell lines that enables rapid and robust production of exosomes," said Claes Gustafsson, Ph.D., Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder at ATUM.
(Source – Business Wire)
About Codiak
Founded in 2015, Codiak is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical firm focused on developing exosome-based treatments, a new class of medications with the potential to change the treatment of a variety of diseases with high unmet medical needs. It created a proprietary engEx Platform that uses exosome biology as natural intercellular transfer mechanisms to design, construct, and manufacture innovative exosome therapeutic candidates. By utilizing its engEx Platform, it has produced a rich pipeline of engineered exosomes for neuro-oncology, oncology, neurology, neuromuscular, and infectious diseases.
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CELL AND GENE THERAPY, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
Ligand Pharmaceuticals | February 21, 2023
In a recent announcement by biopharmaceutical firm, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given accelerated approval for FILSPARITM (sparsentan). This will be helpful in treating adults with primary IgAN condition who are at risk of rapid disease progression, typically defined as a urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPCR) of less than 1.5 g/g.
FILSPARI, a once-daily oral medicine, is the first and only non-immunosuppressive therapy authorized for the treatment of IgAN. Two critical pathways are selectively targeted of IgAN (endothelin-1 and angiotensin II) to check disease progression. Up to 150,000 Americans may have the rare kidney illness IgAN, which is the main cause of kidney failure brought on by glomerular disease. Among these patients, it is predicted that 30,000 to 50,000 can be treated using the indication that has received accelerated approval. Travere has stated that it anticipates FILSPARI to be available from February 27, 2023, and it will offer a thorough patient support program all the way through the patient's therapeutic journey.
Eric Dube, Ph.D., President and CEO of Travere Therapeutics, said, “The accelerated approval of FILSPARI is a significant milestone on our path to advancing a transformative treatment for the IgA nephropathy community.” He further added, “As a first-of-its-kind, non-immunosuppressive therapy, we believe FILSPARI has the potential to ultimately become the new standard of care for IgA nephropathy and offer hope to those living with this condition who until now have had few treatment options. We are grateful to the patients, caregivers, clinical trial investigators, healthcare providers, and advocates who have worked alongside us to develop this innovative first-in-class therapy.”
(Source – Business Wire)
About Ligand Pharmaceuticals
Ligand Pharmaceuticals creates or acquires technologies that aid in the discovery and development of drugs by pharmaceutical firms. The company’s business model generates value for stockholders by offering a diverse portfolio of biotech and pharmaceutical product income streams, that are underpinned by an effective and low corporate cost structure.
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