Eden Biodesign and IntelliHep to develop manufacturing process

Eden Biodesign, a UK-based provider of development and manufacturing services for new medicines, has been chosen by UK biotechnology company IntelliHep to establish a commercial manufacturing process for heparin-based therapeutics.

Heparin-based therapies have a range of potential clinical applications including in the treatment of neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases, and cancer.

Eden Biodesign will use its extensive expertise in drug development and manufacturing to assist IntelliHep in the establishment of a large-scale commercial production process for its lead product candidate.

IntelliHep has been awarded a grant from the National Biomanufacturing Centre (NBC) Access Fund, administered by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), towards the cost of the project. The work will be executed at the state-of-the-art National Biomanufacturing Centre (NBC), part of the £34.25m NBC project developed and owned by the NWDA and funded by the NWDA, ERDF and DTI.

'We are delighted to work with IntelliHep on further development of this novel class of therapeutic and to accelerate their progress from research labs to patients,' said Dr Crawford Brown, ceo of Eden Biodesign.

IntelliHep is a glycotherapeutics company and has a proprietary technology platform which can generate a diverse array of saccharides from heparin - an 'intelligent heparin library'.

'This deal represents a major step forward in our goal of bringing heparin-based therapies to market,' said Dr Bill Primroseceo of IntelliHep. 'The development of a practical manufacturing process is a critical step for the company and we are delighted that we will benefit from the experience and facilities that Eden can offer.'