PLYMOUTH, MI and POWELL, OH, USA I April 29, 2013 I BioSavita and Quanta BioDesign, announced today a collaboration to develop BioSuperior XL™ therapeutics, which are novel, biological drugs based on proven clinical mechanisms, but with an improved drug profile. The collaboration unites the strengths of the two companies’ proprietary drug development technologies.

BioSavita’s genetically engineered strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast and Twin Cassette™ yeast expression platform technology enable the production of complex biological proteins at high levels and with a rapid development and production cycle time. Quanta’s dPEG® technology can extend serum half-life, enhance solubility, reduce immunogenicity, and generate drugs with a single molecular weight.

BioSavita will utilize its Twin Cassette technologies and yeast strains to produce candidate biological drugs, which will then be modified with Quanta’s dPEG® technology. Two therapeutic drug candidates addressing significant markets have been screened and selected for that should significantly benefit from the pairing of these two technologies. It is anticipated that should drug development prove successful, the reference drug that the BioSuperior XL™ candidate is based on would be obviated.

“We are tremendously excited to be engaged in this collaboration with Quanta, which should lead to several new biological drugs with enhanced drug properties,” stated Nalini Motwani, PhD, BioSavita’s President and Chief Scientific Officer. “The methodology is seductively simple, yet elegant, in its scientific approach to making novel biosuperior biological.”

“Having envisioned the dPEG® technology’s potential to transform biologics, marrying it to such a powerful, versatile and scalable expressions system is truly the realization of a key part of the dream,” says Paul D. Davis, PhD, founder, owner and CEO of Quanta BioDesign. “We are all eager and determined to demonstrate this complementary potential to biotech through our collaboration in the first candidate bio-superior therapeutics.”

About BioSavita

BioSavita is a biotechnology company focused on rapidly bringing new biosimilar and biosuperior medicines to patients. Our genetically engineered strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast and Twin Cassette yeast expression vectors enable the rapid manufacture of fully functional antibodies, single domain antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates and fusion proteins. Several companies have already licensed our technology. Our lead product in development is a biosimilar of Campath. More information can be found at our website, www.biosavita.com.

About Quanta BioDesign

Quanta BioDesign is a chemistry based technology company that is committed to fully developing their dPEG® technology into the biotech arena. The dPEG® technology is based on a full set of single molecule ethylene oxide oligomer products covering a broad range of MW and functionality. The technology provides a complete solution to the modification, conjugation and labeling in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Quanta has also developed process development and manufacturing capabilities for providing full support to their customers, including cGMP. Customers already have several of Quanta’s products in a range of drug candidates in various stages of clinical trials, in one approved drug and we are providing bulk and custom dPEG® products into a range of 510(k) platforms. More information can be found at our website, www.quantabiodesign.com.

SOURCE: Quanta BioDesign