DSM joins forces with Almac for biocatalysis
pharmafile | October 9, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Almac, DSM
DSM Pharmaceutical Products has teamed up with Almac to offer biocatalysis services to customers in the drug industry.
By working together, the two companies hope to provide ‘sustainable manufacturing services’ for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) by combining Almac’s expertise in rapid biocatalyst identification, scale-up and implementation into early phase projects with DSM’s track record in commercial, multiton-scale manufacturing bioprocesses.
Biocatalysts – generally based on enzymes – have been used on a small scale in the pharmaceutical industry for a long time, but it is only in the last few years that they have migrated into the commercial-scale manufacturing environment.
Enzymes are biodegradable, renewable and are generally believed to provide a more sustainable means of chemical synthesis than many currently employed methods used for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.
Almac and DSM say that the alliance will allow them to provide enzyme expertise and assets “resulting in cost effective, green processing at all phases of development from pre-clinical to commercial manufacturing scale”.
Alexander Wessels, chief executive of DSM Pharmaceutical Products, said that the deal “adds to our green chemistry toolbox, which also includes complex chemical solutions and more efficient manufacturing with micro reactors, where DSM is unique in its pilot to commercial scale up offering”.
Meanwhile, head of Almac Biocatalysis Tom Moody said that more and more of customers need scalable green technologies to access difficult-to-make chiral chemicals.
“The introduction of enzymes into processes earlier in the drug discovery pipeline will therefore help to drive cost down as the projects move forward,” he said.
DSM said it currently has a collection of more than 3,000 enzymes through in-house development as well as partnerships, and said the collaboration with Almac completes the latest phase in this process.
Phil Taylor
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