KBI, ReForm partnership about ‘bringing better biologics to patients,’ says CEO

05-Apr-2018 - Last updated on 05-Apr-2018 at 12:35 GMT

(Image: Getty/Sinhyu)

KBI will provide services to ReForm to further develop and validate its biologic formulation platform and in turn, will gain access to ReForm’s proprietary excipient technologies.

KBI a Durham, NC-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) has partnered with ReForm Biologics, a pharmaceutical technology company developing platforms to improve biologic formulations.

As part of the strategic partnership – financial detail of which were not disclosed – KBI has made an equity investment in ReForm Biologics.

“We chose to engage with KBI because they are a technology-driven company, and growing organization with a great culture,” John M. Sorvillo, PhD, CEO of ReForm Biologics told Outsorucing-Pharma.com.

“This collaboration is about bringing better biologics to patients,” he said.

Reform’s technologies involve stability-enhancing excipients that Sorvillo said prevent aggregation and particle formation, which increases manufacturing efficiency and product shelf life

Additionally, Reform’s formulation technology extends product lifecycles and offer product differentiating formulations – a benefit for drug developers Sovillo explained.

“We executed this deal because it will provide competitive advantages to KBI’s clients, it advances and expands the usage of Reform’s technology to many more biologics in biopharmaceutical pipelines and it broadens ReForm’s potential collaborators,” added Sorvillo.

For patients, Sorvillo said the partnership will improve the delivery of therapeutics. “Reform’s formulation technologies enable the conversion of an intravenous dosing to an alternative subcutaneous injection or device-assisted administration,” he said.

As per next steps, Sorvillo said the companies will work to coordinate business development activities and identify customers and programs that would benefit from the combination of KBI’s capabilities and Reform’s technology.

“Reform is also using this collaboration to develop new formulation technologies that can improve the manufacturing, delivery, stability and quality of biologics,” he said.