Press release -
Vironova is part of major effort to advance Sweden’s position in biological drugs
Biological drugs hold tremendous potential but are a major challenge to develop. New analytical methods will be needed, including transmission electron microscopy which Vironova is making accessible for the development and quality control processes in drug development.
“The product is the process.”
Biological structures are more complex to work with than regular small chemical drugs. For example, the finished product cannot be fully characterized. The manufacturing process itself must ensure product quality, and purity and needs to be monitored consistently with many analytical methods (such as Vironova’s MiniTEM system) to ensure predictable outcomes.
Vironova’s expertise makes us perfectly placed to participate in NextBioForm, a major effort to put Sweden in a leading position for development of biological drugs - recently presented by Vinnova (Sweden's Innovation Authority) and the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet).
NextBioForm is a collaboration and network forum where industry, academia, and healthcare providers join forces. Together with drug developers (SOBI, Ferring, Regenics, Spiber, BioGaia and Ilya Pharma) and other service and technology providers, (Solve, Waters and CR,) Vironova will contribute to helping shorten time-to-market of state-of-the-art biological drugs.
The NextBioForm centre is focussed on formulation and protein drugs while FormulaX, which Vironova is also part of, focusses on RNA and nanoparticle-based distribution systems (lipid nanoparticles and exosomes).
For Vironova's part, it is important to develop methods and offerings to characterize biologics that the market wants and needs. Through NextBioForm we can participate in an international network of key actors to better understand the market. We also learn more about what the MiniTEM system can offer, and access early knowledge of emerging areas in the pharmaceutical sector.
The NextBioForm Centre receives 16 million SEK in the first stage. In total, there are 17 partners under the leadership of RISE and Centre Director Anna Fureby, anna.fureby@ri.se
For more information contact:
Ida-Maria Sintorn, Chief Technology Officer Vironova AB, +46 (0)76 1090195, ida.sintorn@vironova.com
Mohammed Homman, CEO, Vironova AB, +46 (0) 70 480 49 27, mohammed.homman@vironova.com
Topics
- Science, technology
Categories
- läkemedel
- vironova
- minitem
- image analysis
- biologicals
- biological drugs
Vironova is a Swedish biotechnology company providing comprehensive, hardware, software and services for the analysis of nanoparticles. Vironova revolutionizes access to transmission electron microscopy (TEM)-based image analysis in biopharmaceutical development. Our solution enables automated analyses for faster and better- informed decisions to secure robust bioprocessing and final product quality.
The Vironova offering comprises:
- Cost effective, fast Electron Microscopy (EM) services enabled by the in-house developed Vironova Analyzing Software (VAS) designed for semi-automated nanoparticle analysis
- Viral clearance testing performed in GLP and BSLIII certified laboratories
- MiniTEM™, a bench-top Transmission Electron Microscope system designed for automated nanoparticle characterization. High-resolution images reveal particle morphologies that are transformed into accurate metrics.
