APC’s new R&D unit to focus on complex peptides
The new unit, which will serve both industry and academia, will provide technologies including glycosylation and pegylation to “more effectively drive bioactive peptides identified as potential drug targets through the discovery and development.”
APC sales director Firuz Shakoori, who spoke with in-PharmaTechnologist at this year’s CPhI conference in Madrid, Spain, said it was formed to meet growing drug industry demand for larger and more complex peptides.
Shakoori said that customers will provide both the core peptide molecule as well as specific set of production parameters, with APC’s role being to make the compound as per those specifications.
He added that the unit can undertake multiple projects in discovery and early-stage development, explaining that because such work does not need to adhere to current good manufacturing practice guidelines (cGMP) APC can take a flexible approach.
Large-scale manufacturing drives demand
In broader industry terms, Shakoori said that expansion of the peptide market is causing customers to seek out large-scale production capacity which, in turn, is driving competition among contractors and increasing the need for such firms to differentiate their services.
“We try to make everything under the same roof, so our solution phase chemistry and solid phase chemistry and scale-up for those projects are done under one roof,” explained Shakoori, adding that the approach means transfer from one part of a project to another is a smooth process.
He went on to say that APC’s “under one roof” offering attracts customers from all over the world, including Canada, the US and Europe and added that the firm plans to grow its European customer base through attending events such as CPhI as well as by ramping up its regional marketing efforts.
