Scil Proteins and Ono Pharmaceuticals signed a drug discovery collaboration focused on the development and commercialization of Affilin® molecule therapeutics in multiple disease areas. Scil will select and characterize potential Affilin candidates from its libraries for further development and commercialization by Ono. Under terms of the deal Scill will receive research funding, development and commercialization milestones, and future sales royalties.
“This collaboration with Ono is an important commercial milestone for Scil Protiens, which further affirms the technical and scientific concepts behind our Affilin platform,” comments Henning Afflerbach, chief business officer. “We are pleased to have successfully implemented our fully integrated offering of providing proprietary, fully patent-protected compounds in combination with production process development and GMP manufacturing into a cutting-edge collaborative research with a leading pharmaceutical company.”
Affilin molecules are based on the human serum protein ubiquitin, which is modified through the introduction of new amino acids at defined surface positions. Scil has generated Affilin libraries comprising billions of molecules with unique binding characteristics for screening against specified targets. Primary hits can then be further optimized through maturation and fully characterized. The platform in addition allows for the development of Affilin conjugates, or multimeric Affilin molecules for multitargeting.
Scil is exploiting its Affilin platform both to generate an in-house pipeline of therapeutics and through external partnerships.The firm’s internal pipeline, focused on cancer and inflammatory disorders, is headed by preclinical candidates for cancer imaging and the treatment of solid tumors.
Scil separately offers non-GMP and GMP contract manufacturing for the production of recombinant protein therapeutics using microbial expression systems. In March the firm established a California-based business development operation to support increasing demand for its protein production services in North America.