Dow to produce Nobex peptide in plant-based system
The Dow Chemical Company and Nobex Corporation, a drug development company specialising in drug delivery, are to collaborate on plant-based production of NLC-001, a proprietary peptide currently in preclinical development by Nobex as a potential appetite suppressant to treat obesity.
The Dow Chemical Company and Nobex Corporation, a drug development company specialising in drug delivery, are to collaborate on plant-based production of NLC-001, a proprietary peptide currently in preclinical development by Nobex as a potential appetite suppressant to treat obesity.
Under the agreement, the initial expression of the peptide will take place in plant cell suspension to allow for fast evaluation of the ability of plant tissues to secrete the peptide. If successful, production may be moved to whole plants for rapid scale-up.
The peptide will be conjugated to Nobex's proprietary polymer technology for oral administration. Given the size of the proposed target market for the peptide, it is anticipated that a large volume of supply will be needed for clinical trials and eventual commercialisation.
This project broadens the scope of Dow Plant Biopharmaceuticals beyond its current work in plant-based pharmaceutical production, which has focused primarily on antibodies. Nobex will provide a proprietary gene sequence that will be used in combination with Dow Plant Biopharmaceuticals' proprietary expression technology. Financial terms are not being disclosed; however, both parties are contributing resources.
'More companies today are looking for alternative expression methods to traditional means. We believe our plant-based methods can provide real advantages,' said Carolyn Fritz, Dow's general manager for industrial biotechnology. 'Our plant-based solutions provide alternative expression for difficult-to-express proteins. And along with faster initial assessment, they provide a foundation for scalability into production in whole plants.'
Dow's plant-based approach offers the prospect of lower costs, higher expression levels, and higher volume production, according to Nobex. 'In addition, initial expression in plant cell suspension enables us to evaluate progress months earlier than going directly into whole plant production,' pointed out Dr Radha Krishnan, senior director, chemical development and manufacturing for Nobex.