Press release -

Vironova AB and AstraZeneca are partners in FoRmulaEx, a new Industrial Research Centre receiving 75Million SEK from SSF to work on key development bottlenecks for powerful new medicines

Vironova AB, AstraZeneca, Camurus AB and key research groups headed up by Chalmers University of technology, team up in the FoRmulaEx centre, a new multi-disciplinary Industrial Research Centre that has recently received funding of 75M SEK from the Swedish foundation for Strategic Research (SSF).

Complex, oligonucleotide drugs are the focus. Drugs like these, based on biological structures, are often superior to conventional small-molecule drugs and hold great future promise but it is a major challenge to get them to their targets inside cells. Drug delivery is a key bottleneck in their development.

The centre will develop methods for efficient and robust delivery of complex, oligonucleotide drugs. This requires the kind of advanced analytical methods with objective and reliable information tailored to pharmaceutical development that Vironova specializes in.

Vironova has a 10-year track record in providing expertise in electron microscopy and image analysis in a unique offering of hardware, software and services for nano-particle characterization tailored to the highly-regulated world of drug development. The solution includes compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) that the pharmaceutical industry requires for the use of analytical methods in the whole process from research to batch release.

Vironova is the only actor to provide this comprehensive solution in an offering tailored to pharmaceutical regulatory systems.

“Vironova AB is truly privileged to be part of this powerful industrial research collaboration. Our participation is an endorsement of our unique, leading position in pharmaceutical electron microscopy and we are particularly excited to again be at the cutting edge of solving technology challenges in future healthcare.”

Mohammed Homman, CEO, Vironova AB

Partners:

Astra Zeneca provides industry expertise and infrastructure as well as expertise on oligonucleotide drugs.

Vironova AB will contribute by developing standardized methods for structural analysis of the drug delivery system developed within the centre.

Camurus AB is expert in lipid based drug delivery systems.

The team includes internationally recognized scientists at Chalmers, Karolinksa Institute and Gothenburg University, with Professor Fredrik Höök of Chalmers acting as coordinator.

See also:  http://nordiclifescience.org/two-new-swedish-industry-research-centres-with-life-science-focus/

For more information contact:

Mohammed Homman, CEO, Vironova AB, +46 (0) 70 480 49 27, mohammed.homman@vironova.com.

Josefina Nilsson, PhD, Head of Business Unit, EM Services, Vironova AB. +46 76 109 01 91.  Josefina.nilsson@vironova.com

Topics

  • Science, technology

Categories

  • biopharmaceuticals
  • biologicals
  • drug delivery
  • vironova
  • minitem
  • image analysis
  • nanoparticles

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.

Contacts

Josefina Nilsson

Press contact CEO