Exothera has partnered with Quantoom Biosciences to gain access to Quantoom’s Nfinity technology, a continuous production platform for RNA. The partnership will enable Exothera to be the first CDMO in the world to offer this off-the-shelf process for the continuous production of RNA as a service. Continuous manufacturing of RNA can provide significant advantages in terms of efficiency, productivity, quality control, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.

Exothera will provide the service through a new business unit, Exothera Nucleic Acids, that focuses on accelerating the process development and manufacturing of RNA vaccines and therapeutics.

Combining Exothera’s development and manufacturing expertise with Quantoom’s continuous biomanufacturing platform will allow biotech and pharma companies to simplify RNA vaccine development and accelerate their clinical and commercial timelines. By leveraging the Nfinity technology, Exothera will offer development services, non GMP and GMP manufacturing as well as analytical services to pharma/biotech for mRNA and saRNA therapeutic development.

Thibault Jonckheere, CEO of Exothera, commented: “The market potential for RNA therapies continues to grow and expand into new therapeutic areas, but the process of developing a new RNA vaccine or therapeutic is hindered by outdated technology that was never intended to scale for commercialization. We are thrilled to not only announce the launch of our new business unit focused on nucleic acids, but also our strategic collaboration with Quantoom Biosciences. This collaboration enables Exothera to make the highest quality RNA for vaccines and therapeutics with low-risk process development and almost guaranteed product quality from sequence up to mass production in a much shorter time than previously possible.”

Exothera’s services will be available to biotech and pharmaceutical companies of all sizes and stages of development whether they are starting from a known protein sequence (antigen) or have a product in pre-clinical development or clinical trials. The company is currently accepting inquiries for its services and is actively seeking partnerships with biotech and pharmaceutical companies to support their drug development programmes.

Dr Patrick Thiaville

New appointment

In another recent development, Exothera Nucleic Acids has appointed of Dr Patrick Thiaville as Chief Technology Officer to support its growth in the rapidly expanding RNA therapies market.

Dr Thiaville’s technical knowledge and leadership in GMP operations, Process Development, and MSAT activities come from over 20 years of expertise in designing and modifying microorganisms and plasmids. He has successfully led teams in clinical manufacturing of live biotherapeutic products and the design and build-out of manufacturing infrastructure. HE was a thought leader for cGMP plasmid manufacturing at Thermo Fisher Scientific.