The UK-based active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturer has worked with the university over the last year to create novel amino acid derivatives for use in research and development.
Amino acids are key constituents of peptides, proteins and a range of drugs as well as finding use in drug discovery research.
Sunderland-based Onyx Scientific will make the portfolio available to pharmaceutical firms for development projects and to specialist suppliers of research chemicals.
The company says this product development arm represents a growing revenue stream.
Onyx Scientific predominantly provides outsourced facilities and expertise to help life science companies accelerate drug candidates from discovery, through development, into Phase I/II GMP API manufacturing.
Dr Tony Flinn, chief executive of Onyx Scientific, said: ‘Our alliance with Durham University has been a very successful one in that it has led to the development of a completely novel range of amino acids with unusual side chains for research applications. We can now offer these products to the market on a small scale along with the potential for scale-up to larger quantities using our facilities.’
Dr Steven Cobb, lead academic and lecturer in the department of chemistry at Durham University, added: ‘The amino acids prepared have a range of applications not just in peptide chemistry but also as precursors for biological feeding experiments and as novel building blocks in natural product chemistry.’