Company is exploiting glycan and linker technologies to improve biopharmaceuticals.

U.K. University of Bath spinout Glythera has been awarded up to £2 million in funding from IP Group and the Finance for Business North East Technology Fund, to enable its relocation to the INEX incubator facility in Newcastle. An initial £600,000 tranche of funding has already been received, and two additional similarly sized tranches will be made contingent on the achievement of specific milestones.

Glythera is focused on the development of enhanced protein and peptide therapeutics through the use of its two technology platforms PermaLink™ and PermaCarb. PermaLink is a linker technology that stably attaches desired functional groups to a protein surface via modified cysteine residues. The firm claims the technology enables improved selectivity and control of PEGylation over maleimide methodologies , and generates higher than 95% yields for glycosylated/PEGylated peptides.

PermaCarb™ comprises a range of naturally occurring glycosylation groups that have been modified to offer increased resistance to glycosidase activity, and can be attached to proteins and peptides at defined locations using PermaLink linkers. Glythera says combining the two technologies enables the production of homogenous, stable therapeutic protein/peptide glycoforms that demonstrate significantly increased half life in vivo, potentially reducing both the quantity and frequency of dose required.

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