German duo collaborate in biotech for fine chemicals

Enzymicals and Herbrand offer production to tonne scale
 

Enzymicals and Herbrand PharmaChemicals have announced a co-operation in biocatalysis for the production of fine chemicals and APIs to GMP standard from gram to tonne scales. Both firms are based in Germany. Detailed terms were not disclosed

Under this, Enzymicals, a start-up company 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, 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, described this as “the next logical step in the development of his company in this contract. 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.

Enzymicals has existing collaborations with several other important companies in the fine chemicals industry. 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 the wider biotechnology market. Lonza has had a long-term collaboration with Professor Bornscheuer’s group on rechniques for the recombinant production of (R)-selective transaminases.

These enzymes, 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 more widely used. 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.