Under the service agreement, UK-based contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Sterling Pharma Solutions will apply Nanologica’s technology to make large volumes of spherical porous silica – known as NLAB Saga.
According to Nanologica, NLAB Saga have “highly defined pore and particle size distributions” which lends itself to preparative chromatography applications, such as peptide – most commonly insulin – purification.
“This new partnership will allow us to scale production to completely different volumes than what is possible from our own site in Södertälje, Sweden,” said Nanologica CEO Andreas Bhagwani.
“In practice, this means that our capacity increases from tens of kilograms to tens of tonnes,” he added.
Preparative chromatography media
Nanologica had previously focused on analytical chromatography, which aims to identify compounds in liquid solutions, and conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses.
The firm has since expanded to include preparative chromatography – which aims to purify and collect desired molecules from contaminants – which it hopes will lead to long-term supply deals.
“We can now engage in detailed negotiations with two potential customers regarding our preparative chromatography offering,” said Bhagwani.
“The goal is to finalise long-term supply agreements that will provide us with profitability relatively quickly,” he added.
This latest agreement builds on Sterling Pharma Solutions’ active investments in its contract service offerings.
Last year, the firm announced plans to spend £6m ($8m) on its Dudley, UK-based site to increase milling and micronisation, polymorph screening, salt selection, particle engineering and crystallisation scale-up capabilities.