Curia, formerly AMRI, a contract research, development and manufacturing organisation, and Replicate Bioscience, a company pioneering ways to prevent drug resistance in cancer and to treat autoimmune and inflammatory disorders and other diseases using self-replicating RNA (srRNA), have announced that they will collaborate on a robust development platform for Replicate's srRNA therapeutics.
The strategic collaboration unites two RNA therapeutics industry leaders.
As part of the collaboration, Curia's experienced process development team will support the GMP production of Replicate Bioscience's srRNA vectors up to eight-liter scale (8L), which can be used in Phase 1 through pivotal clinical trials.
Replicate's approach to srRNA is unique, in that we create our own virally-derived synthetic vectors
Curia's global mRNA development and manufacturing facility is ISO-13485 certified and located near Boston, Massachusetts. This facility also supports innovators engaged in vaccine and other mRNA therapy development and manufacture through Phase 2 and 3, including GMP assays.
Additional Curia facilities support manufacture of srRNA through commercial production scales.
"Replicate's approach to srRNA is unique, in that we create our own virally-derived synthetic vectors to customise srRNAs to deliver specific proteins," said Replicate Co-founder and Chief Development Officer Andrew Geall, who previously has set up srRNA CMC frameworks for companies including Novartis, Synthetic Genomics, and Precision Nanosystems. "This customisation has important therapeutic advantages- versatility of application, lower dosing, and longer duration of therapeutic effect compared to other RNA modalities- but requires built-for-purpose processes to solve the challenges of manufacturing longer RNAs. Curia's unprecedented expertise in process development and end-to-end integration of longer RNAs makes them a perfect partner for us as we transition from research into clinical development and the production of our srRNA for trials in patients."
"The manufacture of these longer mRNAs is more technically challenging than non-replicating mRNAs and to date we have succeeded with mRNAs up to 16,000 bases," said Norman Garceau, VP of Global R&D Technology for Curia. "Curia's platform offers versatility and streamlined manufacturing times that can handle such complex molecules. Our collaboration with Replicate Bioscience is enabling us to create entirely new methods of manufacturing longer RNAs. We have built our platform from the ground up, using our combined experience in biologics and chemistry to create end-to-end solutions covering mRNA synthesis, lipid synthesis, formulation, and liquid nanoparticle fill-finish. We are proud to apply our capabilities and expertise to support the Replicate Bioscience team and its innovative approach."