Attana in project for faster drug development

Stockholm, January 26 th, 2016. The Swedish Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) has awarded AstraZeneca, Waters Nordic, Attana and Karlstad University a grant for a R&D project for predictive separation of biopharmaceuticals for faster drug development.

The development of new biological medicines is a growing area of high importance for the Swedish pharma industry, as illustrated by the announcement in May 2015 from AstraZeneca that they will invest approximately 285 million USD in a new high-tech facility for manufacturing of biological drugs in Södertälje, Sweden.

In order to develop new biopharmaceuticals it is of high importance to produce biopharmaceutical molecules of high purity and quality for R&D, clinical testing and
manufacturing. This project’s major goal is to obtain detailed understanding of the kinetics and thermodynamics of peptide adsorption in order to develop improved and predictive separation methods for production of biopharmaceutical molecules.

Under the guidance of Astra Zeneca and Karlstad University the project will utilize the chromatography technology and knowledge of Waters combined with the label-free biosensor technology and knowledge of Attana to reach the project goal.

The project is divided in three sub-projects:

• Utilization of linear methods for acquiring basic parameters for separation behavior of peptides
• Expanded non-linear methods for detailed adsorption behavior on modern separation media
• Unified approach to develop methods fulfilling modern quality assurance criteria

“This project combines world-leading expertise in drug development and interaction characterization and forms a good base for future successful development of
biopharmaceuticals,” Prof. Fornstedt (Karlstad University).

For more information, please contact:

Teodor Aastrup, CEO Attana AB
e-post: teodor.aastrup@attana.com 
tel: + 46 70 15676765

Our team provide customers with biologically relevant information to enhance their success rate and efficiency of research and development process. Our world leading cell interaction technology have been validated by academic institutions, biotech companies and big-pharma across the world. With a strong focus on characterizing molecular interactions exactly as they occur in the human body, Attana is committed to offer tools and services with the goal of enhancing success rates and efficiencies in the complex process of developing pharmaceuticals. Attana’s 3 rd generations biosensors are today used to determine specificity, kinetics and affinity, among other binding characteristics of biomolecules and macrostructures of varying species such as cells, antibodies, proteins, viruses and bacteria.

We are located in Stockholm and have a strong footprint in Europe and Asia. www.attana.com