PolyTherics and Aston University have been awarded grants totalling £685,000 from the Technology Strategy Board and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, both UK
This consortium is to use this additional funding over the next two years to accelerate the development of a treatment for anaemia initiated by GlycoForm.
Through combining the sugar synthesis and conjugation technology of GlycoForm, the unique Pegylation expertise of PolyTherics and Aston University's yeast expression capability, the consortium will explore the development of next generation products for the treatment of anaemia.
A product with an improved safety profile and an extended half-life is in increasing demand in this £5 billion market.
Michael Short, GlycoForm's CEO, commented: "We are delighted that this peer reviewed funding will enable us to further accelerate our lead therapeutic product programme for the treatment of anaemia with such an outstanding consortium.
"This fits well with our existing collaborative programmes of drug modification with sugars to improve treatments for patients".
Keith Powell, PolyTherics CEO, said: "This collaboration complements PolyTherics' strategy of leveraging our proprietary technologies into best in class bio-therapeutics.
"Through our existing partnerships, we are already exploring the benefits that come from targeted, controlled modulation of protein half-life.
"We anticipate being able to apply our capabilities with equal impact to the goals of this new consortium".
