News

Almac’s site-specific Ligation technology takes advantage of impressive expertise in production and engineering of both recombinant proteins and synthetic peptides to develop a proprietary technology which overcomes issues inherent with other conjugation approaches.

The technology has been developed into an enabling and practical approach for site-specific PEGylation of recombinantly derived proteins.

Currently available PEGylation technologies produce products which are PEGylated at multiple sites in an uncontrolled manner. This inevitably results in a population of molecules PEGylated in locations which crowd the active centre or binding regions resulting in a net decrease in potency versus the un-PEGylated analogue. The Almac unique approach enables homogeneous PEGylated populations where the specific PEGylation site can be selected and controlled, thus improving efficacy compared to existing PEGylation techniques, decreasing cost of goods and substance dosed to patient; while still providing improved ADME profile due to the addition of the PEG moiety.

In addition, for synthetic peptides and proteins, Almac has extensive expertise in the synthesis, engineering and labelling of polypeptides of up to 200 amino acids. Site specific PEGylation of synthetic folded polypeptides can be achieved using a generic methodology developed for the site-specific labelling of folded synthetic proteins in high yield.

Commenting on the launch of Almac’s site-specific Ligation technology, Almac Sciences’ President and Managing Director, Stephen Barr said ‘ The application of our unique ligation technology to the field of half life extension with site specific PEGylation will enable our partners to benefit from Almac’s state of the art peptide and protein engineering techniques for the improvement of  their drug products.’ 

For further information contact:
Robert Grundy
Director Research Alliances,
Almac Group Ltd.
T +44 (0)28 3833 2200
F +44 (0)28 3833 2299 

Notes for Editors:

About Almac Group:
Almac is a financially stable, privately owned organisation with over 30 years experience, it provides integrated development solutions to over 600 customers worldwide including all the world leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Their services include R&D, translational genomic services; API manufacture; formulation development; clinical trial supply and technology (IVRS/IWRS/ePRO) and commercial-scale manufacture.

The company has over 2,500 employees and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, where it was awarded “Business of the Year 2009”.  US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California.  Construction of the company’s new $112m North American Headquarters in PA started in July 2008 and will be completed in 2010.

For more information about the Almac Group, please visit www.almacgroup.com or e-mail info@almacgroup.com.