A new service for analysing vaccines from Glasgow, Scotland-based XstalBio Analytics will be centred on the company's proprietary solid state Circular Dichroism (ssCD) capability. It will be offered alongside highly specialised orthogonal analytical techniques and an increased range of vaccine analysis, formulation and stability testing services.
The additional services include physico-chemical methodologies for vaccine characterisation and release, formulation development and stability testing.
The company says it takes a holistic approach to vaccine analysis and formulation, aimed at understanding the antigen-adjuvant interaction and the consequences for antigen structural integrity, potency and stability.
By bringing these specialist techniques together, the new service combines a comprehensive vaccine analysis capability with being able to directly analyse the biopharmaceutical antigen while it is bound to its particulate adjuvant.
The company says the ssCD analytical technique is unique in its ability to determine specific aspects of structure in biopharmaceutical antigens in colloidal particulate vaccines. The analysis developed by XstalBio allows the collection of in situ CD spectra in colloidal suspensions and enables structural data on bound antigens to be provided, making the service suitable for vaccine protein antigen analysis.
The new service will be provided from the company's research centre in Glasgow and will be headed by Dr Allan Watkinson, who was formerly with Avecia Vaccines (UK) and Pharmathene.
Dr Watkinson said: 'The use of cutting edge analytical technologies enables us to overcome many of the issues traditionally associated with the detailed structural analysis of colloidal vaccine formulations.
'Structural data can be obtained in situ without desorption of the antigen, enabling us to deliver an innovative approach to assist with vaccine formulation, characterisation and stability studies.'
