News

Firms announce biocatalysis alliances

Enzymicals and Herbrand PharmaChemicals, plus Evocatal and RohnerChem, have formed partnerships

GERMANY-SWITZERLAND

Enzymicals and Herbrand PharmaChemicals of Germany have announced a co-operation in biocatalysis for the production of fine chemicals and APIs to GMP standard from gram to tonne scales on undisclosed terms. Meanwhile, their compatriot Evocatal and Switzerland's RohnerChem have formed a "preferred but non-exclusive partnership" for the development of biocatalytic processes and their use in the synthesis of fine chemicals and APIs. Terms were not disclosed in either case.

Under the former deal, Enzymicals will develop the enzyme catalysis step for production-scale and supply biocatalysts for the large scale synthesis. Gengenbach-based Herbrand, a fine chemicals producer, will carry out biocatalytic production in volumes from a few kilos to several tonnes/year under GMP conditions and distribute the products globally.

Dr Ulf Menyes, CEO of Enzymicals, a start-up that develops enzymatic reactions for fine and speciality chemicals based on technology developed by Professor Uwe Bornscheuer's group at Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, described this as "the next logical step" in the company's development. "In particular, chiral intermediates of pharmaceutical substances can now be produced in Gengenbach in a highly selective manner under mild reaction conditions using the enzyme portfolio of Enzymicals," he said.

Laboratory for the production of tailored biocatalysts at Enzymicals

Enzymicals has collaborations with several other major fine chemicals companies. Most recently, in June 2011, it signed a licence agreement for the use of Lonza's patented (R)-selective transaminases on a laboratory scale as a screening kit for use in biotechnology. Lonza has had a long-term collaboration with Professor Bornscheuer's group on techniques for their recombinant production.

(R)-selective transaminases, Enzymicals said at the time, can be used for the synthesis of chiral amines for APIs, agrochemicals and their chiral intermediates. They show such diverse properties as significant differences in substrate spectrum, thus allowing them to address a broad spectrum of applications and potentially to obtain yields of 100% when using ketones as substrates.

This, it is claimed, means that the (R)-enantiomers of chiral amine APIs, which have been difficult to access with existing technologies, could be used more widely. The transamination process to produce them is also said to be cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

In October 2010, Enzymicals had acquired proprietary rights to recombinant pig liver esterases (PLEs) from Evonik. This covered range of PLE isoenzymes for the hydrolysis of compounds such as esters of secondary and tertiary alcohols, lactones and carboxylic acid esters, where they are said to show "significantly different enantioselectivities", among other characteristics.

The company thus became the sole producer of these isoenzymes, which it also uses in the synthesis of fine chemicals, particularly enantiopure chiral building blocks for APIs such as calcium channel blockers and for other highly specialised compounds. It also offers licences for processes using PLEs within the chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries.

Since July 2010, Enzymicals has been minority-owned by the German white biotechnology company BRAIN, which had also been collaborating with Bornscheuer's group on biocatalysis for some years. This process had already added enzymes such as esterases, laccases and monooxygenases to the company catalogue.

Another recent co-operation agreement has been with the University of Greifswald's Institute of Marine Biotechnology (IMaB), which was also signed in June 2011. Enzymicals and IMaB are now working on developing new, mostly proteomics-based technologies for the identification and production of novel enzymes from aquatic sources, among others, for use in biocatalysts.

The alliance between Düsseldorf-based enzymes producer Evocatal and Switzerland's RohnerChem, a CMO to the pharmaceuticals and related industries, similarly revolves around the development of biocatalytic processes and their use in the synthesis of fine chemicals and APIs. Projects using the services of the partnership will thus benefit from RohnerChem's process development and scale-up capabilities.

Evocatal supplies ketoreductases, C-C-coupling enzymes, esterases, transaminases, hydroxynitrilases and others which are said to "allow access to almost all functional groups in very cost competitive processes and with ee values almost always close to 100%". The company will develop and produce tailored enzymes for enantiomerically pure products to be made in RohnerChem's pilot plant and production equipment at Pratteln, near Basel, using techniques like asymmetric hydrogenation.

 

 

From Online Issue: February 2012