CytoBioscience buys formulation safety tech company in Alabama for millions
Soluble Therapeutics produces instruments which further optimises protein formulations with protein additives, after initial screening.
The firm’s HSC tech works for a range of different protein based active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), including novel therapeutics and biosimilars, to improve safety and time of development.
HSC technology was developed at the University of Alabama, which Soluble Therapeutics licensed it from in 2008.
The acquisition of Soluble Therapeutics will change its name to Soluble Biosciences Inc.
CEO of Cytobioscience, James Garvin, said: “The Soluble Therapeutics team has created a business offering that aligns very well with our technology and work to positively impact the efforts of drug development enterprises and researchers across the globe."
Optimising formulations
Trial and error, data mining and outsourcing are common methods of identifying and optimising the right additives to use in novel therapeutic formulations, from the 278 FDA-approved compounds.
Soluble Therapeutics claims its HSC technology offers an alternative solution, using chromatography and computer based analyses to speed the process up.
As a high throughput instrument, HSC uses a predictive algorithm – the Artificial Neural Network - to “rapidly select” excipients which can promote solubility of the formulation – in around 60-70 days.
Patent Issues
For the HSC instrument being used to optimize biosimilars, the Soluble Therapeutics also claims the tech helps avoid patent infringement.
This is done by selecting excipients after a PreScreening stage of a panel of 30-50 excipients, and limiting use of additives which are in the protected formulation IP.
Last year, Soluble Therapeutics was granted over $150k from the US NIH to help further develop the HSC technology.
CytoBioscience’s acquisition of the firm was described as being worth millions in a statement.