Cardiff and Langenfeld April 29
th
2010 — Q Chip Ltd, a UK based biopharmaceutical company, and ARTES Biotechnology GmbH, a German biotechnology company, today announce that they have signed a Collaborative Agreement to explore the development of a new sustained release formulations of interferon alpha 2a for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C.
The collaboration aims to improve patient compliance and provide a more convenient dosing schedule compared with the current marketed pegylated therapies which require weekly administration. Q Chip will be developing a one month sustained release microsphere formulation This first phase of the collaboration is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.
The study is designed to evaluate Q Chip’s Q-Sphera™ peptide and protein delivery platform to develop a new sustained release microsphere composed of biocompatible polymers. The microsphere will be loaded with interferon alpha 2a manufactured from ARTES´ proprietary yeast Hansenula polymorpha expression system. ARTES will supply interferon alpha 2a and Q Chip will formulate the Q-Sphera microspheres.
Q-SpheraTM is a highly enabling bio-encapsulation technology for the development of polymer based sustained release systems. No harsh solvents or manufacturing conditions are used in the production of drug (including peptides and proteins) loaded microspheres facilitating benign processing of labile molecules.
Hansenula based products are characterized by safety and cost efficiency superior to other microbial technologies. Interferon alpha 2a manufactured from Hansenula has proven to be better tolerated than the E. coli reference.