Technology for gene-based vaccines

The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has prompt­ed a break­through in gene-based vac­cines. Cur­rent­ly, the only estab­lished process for trans­port­ing mRNA vac­cines into the human cell is encap­su­la­tion by means of lipid nanopar­ti­cles (LNP). With­out this pro­tec­tion, the mRNA with the blue­print for stim­u­lat­ing the immune sys­tem could not reach the right site of action in the body. With­in sec­onds it would degrade in the blood­stream and make the vac­cine ineffective.
“Cop­ing with the pan­dem­ic depends large­ly on the avail­abil­i­ty of effec­tive vac­cines,” says Chris­t­ian Kull­mann, chair­man of Evonik’s exec­u­tive board. “The fact that the sup­ply of vac­cines is immi­nent is an out­stand­ing achieve­ment of the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and biotech indus­try, which we sup­port with high­ly spe­cial­ized appli­ca­tions from for­mu­la­tion devel­op­ment to pro­duc­tion”. The inno­va­tion growth field Health­care Solu­tions in the life-sci­ence divi­sion Nutri­tion & Care has been grow­ing strong­ly ever since its for­ma­tion. For decades, the com­pa­ny has been a leader in the field of drug deliv­ery tech­nolo­gies, which includes lipid nanopar­ti­cles. “We are now con­sis­tent­ly expand­ing this posi­tion as a solu­tions provider and inte­grat­ed devel­op­ment partner.”
Evonik believes that its drug deliv­ery tech­nolo­gies and ser­vices have great poten­tial for above-aver­age growth in vac­cines as well as cell and gene ther­a­pies. Gene ther­a­pies, includ­ing those involv­ing mRNA active ingre­di­ents and the use of lipid nanopar­ti­cles, open up the poten­tial for the Health Care busi­ness line to gen­er­ate rev­enues in the clear triple-dig­it mil­lions with­in the next years.
The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has now great­ly accel­er­at­ed the growth of inno­v­a­tive ther­a­peu­tic approach­es. In addi­tion to the vac­cines against COVID-19, which are close to approval, the head of Evonik’s Health Care busi­ness line, Thomas Rier­meier, sees numer­ous oth­er areas of appli­ca­tion on the verge of break­through, and Evonik is help­ing to devel­op them. “Inno­v­a­tive vac­cines against influen­za, malar­ia or HIV are just as con­ceiv­able as promis­ing approach­es for can­cer immunother­a­py, the treat­ment of hered­i­tary dis­eases or defec­tive genes.” A major step in gene edit­ing is expect­ed with­in the next five years.
Evonik has sup­port­ed var­i­ous COVID-19 vac­cine projects, from devel­op­ment to the pro­duc­tion of clin­i­cal sam­ples. As one of the inte­grat­ed devel­op­ment part­ners for gene-based ther­a­pies, Evonik has been involved in over 100 projects in the past years, with­in var­i­ous appli­ca­tion fields.
“The high­er effi­ca­cy as well as the sig­nif­i­cant­ly short­er devel­op­ment times are advan­tages of gene-based drug prod­ucts that are cur­rent­ly becom­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly appar­ent. The dynam­ics of the mar­ket show a par­a­digm shift in the way the indus­try will devel­op and pro­duce drugs in the future,” says Rier­meier. Evonik intends to fur­ther expand its posi­tion as an inte­grat­ed solu­tions provider in this mar­ket. This includes the mar­ket­ing of spe­cial phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal excip­i­ents such as lipids, the devel­op­ment of for­mu­la­tions, i.e. the com­bi­na­tion of excip­i­ents and active ingre­di­ents, as well as the pro­duc­tion of clin­i­cal test sam­ples, and the pro­duc­tion of com­mer­cial quan­ti­ties. The expan­sion of clin­i­cal pro­duc­tion capac­i­ties is also being planned, as is the expan­sion of man­u­fac­tur­ing capac­i­ties for com­mer­cial quantities.
Evonik rec­og­nized the poten­tial of gene-based ther­a­peu­tic approach­es ear­ly on. For cus­tomers world­wide, the spe­cial­ty chem­i­cals com­pa­ny devel­ops and for­mu­lates lipid nanopar­ti­cles in Burn­a­by (BC, Cana­da) and oper­ates a plant for the pro­duc­tion of com­mer­cial quan­ti­ties in Birm­ing­ham (AL, USA).
“With the acqui­si­tion of Burn­a­by-based Trans­fer­ra Nanosciences, we delib­er­ate­ly invest­ed in this promis­ing tech­nol­o­gy in 2016,” explains Rier­meier. With the acqui­si­tion of Wilshire Tech­nolo­gies, a US man­u­fac­tur­er of nat­ur­al excip­i­ents for the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try, the port­fo­lio was fur­ther expand­ed in ear­ly 2020.