Protagen and instrAction are joining forces to develop customized chromatography phases for downstream processing based on the latter's technology. Protagen will contribute its expertise in GMP-compliant protein analysis and related services to develop a portfolio of new tailor-made separation phases for the production of recombinant protein drugs other biotherapeutics and biosimilars.
instrAction develops and manufactures instrAction® phases, highly selective resins for chromatography. The technology allows for immobilization of small molecules as well as substances with high molecular weight on a polymer network coated on different porous backbone materials.
“In order to exploit the full value of this exciting new protein purification technology and to convince customers from pharma process development and production, it is important to provide convincing data sets from feasibility studies,” states Stefan Müllner, CEO of Protagen.
Protagen, which also specializes in in vitro diagnostics, has raised a total €10 million ($13.9 million) in two financing rounds, the second one closing in September. On February 7, instrAction announced it expanded an alliance formed in July with Novasep beyond nonchiral chromatography to include the purification of taxanes.