Life sciences group extends agreement with genetic medicines client
Aptamer Group, a developer of novel Optimer® binders to enable innovation in the life sciences industry, says it has extended an agreement with a genetic medicines customer.
York-headquartered Aptamer develops custom affinity binders through its proprietary Optimer® platform, which can serve as an alternative to antibodies and enable new approaches in therapeutics, diagnostics, and research applications.
Over the past 10 months, it has created Optimer delivery vehicles and shipped Optimer test material to the genetic medicines customer last month.
The performance of these delivery vehicles has now been validated by the customer, indicating that the Optimer delivery vehicles can specifically target the required cell type, with the potential to be used as part of a precision therapy, which would deliver licensing revenue for Aptamer.
The same customer has also demonstrated Optimer binding to the target cells from a panel of different animal species.
Aptamer explains this can facilitate progression through preclinical development, where testing in multiple animal species is often used before testing in humans.
It adds the customer has committed to progressing to the final commercial development stage for the therapeutic delivery vehicle.
Aptamer notes the targeting of genetic medicines to specific cell types remains a major challenge within the field. It says Optimer technology offers a cutting-edge approach to innovative delivery solutions to address this issue.
Aptamer says it can develop highly selective delivery vehicles targeting cell types that have been difficult to achieve with other technologies.
Dr Arron Tolley, chief executive officer, said: “The customer’s results align with those seen within our own laboratories and validate the hard work of our scientific team to develop novel, high-performance delivery vehicles.
“As this Optimer advances through the final development stages, we continue to move closer to demonstrating the strength of our Optimer platform in generating high-value, therapeutic targeting assets.
“This represents our second drug delivery asset with licensing potential, alongside our liver fibrosis targeting Optimer, which has already shown good effectiveness in delivering functional genetic medicines to specific cells.
“These could enable new approaches to precise drug delivery across the field of genetic medicines whilst underpinning our business model with passive income from licensing.”
