PolyTherics announces acquisition of WEP

PolyTherics Limited ("PolyTherics"), a provider of solutions to biopharmaceutical companies for the improvement of protein and peptide based drugs, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Warwick Effect Polymers ("WEP"), a provider of specialty biopolymers for the modification of biological products.

WEP has developed two proprietary biopolymer technologies, PolyPEG® and GlycoPol®, both of which are based on the leading academic work of Professor David Haddleton of the University of Warwick utilising Living Radical Polymerisation. WEP has agreements with several global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for the evaluation of PolyPEG® or GlycoPol® and the company expects to announce licensing deals for these technologies this year.

PolyPEG® is a novel low viscosity comb polymer for extending the duration of action of biopharmaceuticals and which is especially applicable to high concentration protein products. GlycoPol® is a novel glycopolymer for targeting the delivery of therapeutic agents, including RNAi and aptamer molecules, to specific glycan receptors on cells and has the potential to facilitate their intracellular uptake.

PolyTherics' proprietary conjugation technologies, TheraPEG™, CyPEG™ and HiPEG™, have been used extensively to attach polymers, mainly poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG), to specific sites on proteins and peptides to extend their duration of action and, more recently, to produce antibody drug conjugates for delivery of imaging agents or cytotoxic drugs to target cells. PolyPEG® and GlycoPol® provide PolyTherics with additional polymers to use in its collaborations with partners for the development of better biopharmaceuticals.

"With this acquisition of WEP, PolyTherics now has broader technology capabilities for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company partners that the two companies have separately served," commented John Burt, CEO of PolyTherics. "This acquisition enables the combined businesses to provide a portfolio of best-in-class technologies to enable better biopharmaceuticals which will benefit patients."

Dave Haddleton commented that "the combination of PolyTherics' technologies with our specialty polymers technology is an exciting prospect for future partnerships and will allow the most effective package for our partners".