Sanofi Partners with Dyadic to Research Fungus-Based Expression Platform

On Sept. 7, 2018, Dyadic International, a global biotechnology company with a proprietary C1 gene-expression platform for biologic vaccines and drugs at flexible commercial scales, announced that it has entered into a fully funded proof-of-concept research collaboration with Sanofi-Aventis, a Sanofi group company, to explore the potential of Dyadic’s C1 technology to produce multiple types of biologic vaccines and drugs.

Under the agreement, Sanofi will fund the collaborative research, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019.  Other terms of the collaboration were not disclosed. 

The gene-expression platform is based on the fungus Myceliophthora thermophila, known as C1, a microorganism that enables the development and large-scale manufacture of low-cost proteins. Dyadic reports that C1 has the potential to be further developed into a safe and efficient expression system that may help speed up the development, lower production costs, and improve the performance of biologic vaccines and drugs at flexible commercial scales.

Dyadic is using the C1 technology and other technologies to conduct research, development, and commercial activities for the development and manufacturing of human and animal vaccines (such as virus like particles and antigens), monoclonal antibodies, Fab antibody fragments, Fc-Fusion proteins, biosimilars and/or biobetters, and other therapeutic proteins.

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with Sanofi to express multiple types of important therapeutic compounds using our C1 production platform”, said Mark Emalfarb, Dyadic’s CEO, in a company press release. “This research and development program is aiming to overcome specific gene expression challenges and to further demonstrate the potential of C1 to become a platform of choice for manufacturing protein-based biologics because of its speed of development and low cost of goods.”

Source: Dyadic International