Cambridge Discovery Chemistry Limited

CAMBRIDGE COMBINATORIAL AND BIOPROCESSING TEAM UP TO PROVIDE NOVEL SOLUTIONS TO DRUG PURIFICATION

Cambridge Combinatorial, the combinatorial chemistry company specialising in the design, production and supply of compounds for the drug discovery industry, has signed an agreement with Bioprocessing Corporation, of Consett, County Durham, to design and develop new separation products for the purification of biologically derived drugs on an industrial scale.

The collaboration will combine Cambridge Combinatorial's experience in the design and synthesis of novel drug libraries with Bioprocessing's expertise in the manufacture of unique, glass-based adsorbents for the separation of biomolecules on a large scale. Under the terms of the agreement, Cambridge Combinatorial will use combinatorial chemistry techniques to identify and design libraries of ligands which have a binding affinity with targeted biologically-derived drugs. Cambridge Combinatorial will then supply these ligands to Bioprocessing, which will develop a column-based chromatography system for the separation of biomolecules using its range of support matrices and unique chemistry.

The market for such separation media is potentially large, as an increasing number of biopharmaceutical companies develop new generations of biologically derived drugs. Bioprocessing's novel technology allows for the scale-up of the manufacture of drug batches, which will contribute significantly to efficiencies in time and resources early on in the drug discovery process.

Commenting on the agreement with Cambridge Combinatorial, Dr John Heap, Chairman of Bioprocessing said:

"This venture combines the considerable expertise in the design of chemical libraries at Cambridge Combinatorial with Bioprocessing's process separation products, scale-up and development skills. Together, we can now build customer-specific, new bioseparation adsorbents to meet the growing demand for process efficiency which is being driven by the explosion in new, biologically-derived drugs."

Speaking about the collaboration, Dr Allan Marchington, Chief Executive of Cambridge Combinatorial said:

"We are delighted to be able to apply our expertise in the design of chemical libraries to such a proven technology as Bioprocessing's bioseparation adsorbents. Bioprocessing's existing product range is becoming an industry standard for the separation of complex biomolecules and the company's expanding client base of first-class pharmaceutical companies is a testament to the quality of the company."

Notes to editors
Cambridge Combinatorial Limited
Cambridge Combinatorial Limited specialises in the design, production and supply of chemical compounds for the drug discovery industry. Headed by Dr Allan Marchington, Chief Executive, and Dr Ryszard Kobylecki, Technical Director, both ex-Pfizer medicinal chemists, the company was established with a Ł2 million investment from Oxford Molecular Group, the management, founding scientists and the University of Cambridge (through its intellectual property company, Cambridge University Technical Services Limited). The new Cambridge-based company employs recent advances in combinatorial chemistry, methods which allow the rapid synthesis of many thousands of diverse compounds, to supply the pharmaceutical and emerging biotechnology industries with a pool of structures from which active compounds can be identified.

Bioprocessing Corporation Limited
Bioprocessing Corporation Limited is based in Consett, County Durham. The company develops, manufactures and sells worldwide a range of proprietary products and services for the chromatographic purification of biologically-derived drugs by its customers - pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies - under the trade name PROSEPŽ.

Bioprocessing, headed by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dr John Heap, was founded in 1987 with the provision of Ł500,000 from Alta Berkeley, the UK venture capital group, to develop affinity chromatography adsorbents based on porous glass as the support. The company acquired its first laboratory facility in Consett, County Durham later that year and began development of its key product PROSEPŽ-High Capacity, for the purification of monoclonal antibodies, which was launched in 1989.

The company successfully completed a second round of venture capital finance in 1990, raising Ł1.75 million and bringing in Transatlantic Capital, BTG, Innoven and Thomas Swann as investors. Bioprocessing has used this capital to develop its manufacturing and quality system, to expand the range of PROSEPŽ products and to introduce those products to an increasing number of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the US, Europe and Japan with biopharmaceutical drugs in development.