Almac teams with Welsh academics to create P450 enzymes for industry

By Gareth Macdonald

- Last updated on GMT

University of Bangor, Wales.
University of Bangor, Wales.

Related tags Cytochrome p450

Almac has teamed up with Welsh Academics and industrial chemistry firm Hockley International to develop enzymes capable of making drug intermediates more quickly.

The project, which is backed by a £1m Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grant, will see the Almac work with scientists at Bangor University in Wales to develop novel speeding up drug production according to company enzymes chief, Tom Moody.

He told Outsourcing-pharma.com that: “The research will focus on developing P450 oxidative enzymes to shorten routes to key chemical intermediates,” ​explaining that while the project is backed by the BBSRC, Almac will own all the resulting technologies.

P450, or cytochrome p450 enzymes, catalyse a wide variety of oxidation reactions by remove an H atom from a C-Hand replacing it with an O atom. 

Almac is already established in the biocatalysis field through earlier agreements with companies like DSM Pharmaceutical Products (DPP)​ – now part of DPx with Patheon – and other academic researchers at University College London (UCL).

More recently the firm further boosted its biocatalytic development capabilities in partnership with researchers at Queen’s University,​ Belfast in a deal that saw it add fermentation optimisation and scale up to its offering.

Moody said building on Almac’s existing capabilities was a major driver for the new partnership, explaining that: “Key to success is investment in the technology so it can continue to compete at the highest level. 

“Having this technology will open further opportunities outside of this work” he added.

Biocatalysis is increasingly attracting the attention of Big Pharma firms. In June, enzyme specialist Codexis signed a land mark licensing deal with GSK​ that granted the drugmaker rights to its enzyme development platform.

The GSK deal – which follows Codexis’s earlier agreements with Pfizer​ and Merck & Co​ - combined with Almac’s new development efforts is an indication of growing demand for greener, quick production methods.

Related news

Show more

Related products

show more

Increasing the Bioavailability of Oncology Drugs

Increasing the Bioavailability of Oncology Drugs

Content provided by Lonza Small Molecules | 13-Nov-2023 | White Paper

Oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are a class of cancer drugs that can be highly susceptible to issues with solubility in the gastrointestinal tract

Efficient Freezing & Storage of Biopharmaceuticals

Efficient Freezing & Storage of Biopharmaceuticals

Content provided by Single Use Support | 06-Nov-2023 | White Paper

Various options exist for freezing biopharmaceutical bulk material, but selecting the most effective and efficient approach for each cold chain can be...

Manufacturing Drugs with Highly Potent APIs

Manufacturing Drugs with Highly Potent APIs

Content provided by Altasciences | 28-Sep-2023 | White Paper

In this issue of The Altascientist, we examine the critical considerations for the safe and compliant manufacture of drugs with highly potent APIs (HPAPIs),...

Follow us

Products

View more

Webinars