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Message from: May 17, 2023, CHEManager: Polymer excipients for the pharmaceutical industry

“We want to help Germany regain some of its former status as the world’s pharmacy.”

Teamphoto NGP Polymers
Photo: CHEManager 05/2023

NGP Polymers develops novel pharmaceutical polymers for improved drug formulations

The whole interview can be read here.

Developing novel special lipids for RNA drugs

Compared to RNA-based vaccines, new compositions of the drugs are needed to deliver the new medications to the disease site in a targeted manner. To do this, the RNA will be packaged in innovative solid-lipid nanoparticles with polymer excipients. The nanoparticles should stably encapsulate the RNA drugs and deliver them to specific organs that were previously difficult to reach, where they are released after cellular uptake. The goal is a tissue-specific effect. And finally, the special lipids should ideally be such that they can be completely degraded or excreted by the body after release of the RNA.

The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, through its project management organization VDI/VDE, will fund the research consortium coordinated by ISAR Bioscience with close to 13 million for three years. Of this amount, Friedrich Schiller University in Jena will receive just under 1.6 million euros and its spin-off Next Generation Pharma Polymers GmbH (NGP Polymers GmbH) will receive 2 million euros. The start-up company moved into an office on the spin-off floor of the Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry (CEEC Jena) at Jena University in November 2022 with its first three employees – all graduates of Jena University. It plans to move in the new incubator lab2fab building of the Technology and Innovation Park (TIP) Jena after the completion in 2024.

The project commitment is part of an initiative to promote RNA-based technologies. These are to be further advanced in Germany and corresponding production facilities built so that the reagents required for vaccines needed in the future, as well as for new RNA drugs, can be produced quickly in the country.

Developing novel special lipids for RNA drugs

Compared to RNA-based vaccines, new compositions of the drugs are needed to deliver the new medications to the disease site in a targeted manner. To do this, the RNA will be packaged in innovative solid-lipid nanoparticles with polymer excipients. The nanoparticles should stably encapsulate the RNA drugs and deliver them to specific organs that were previously difficult to reach, where they are released after cellular uptake. The goal is a tissue-specific effect. And finally, the special lipids should ideally be such that they can be completely degraded or excreted by the body after release of the RNA.

The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, through its project management organization VDI/VDE, will fund the research consortium coordinated by ISAR Bioscience with close to 13 million for three years. Of this amount, Friedrich Schiller University in Jena will receive just under 1.6 million euros and its spin-off Next Generation Pharma Polymers GmbH (NGP Polymers GmbH) will receive 2 million euros. The start-up company moved into an office on the spin-off floor of the Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry (CEEC Jena) at Jena University in November 2022 with its first three employees – all graduates of Jena University. It plans to move in the new incubator lab2fab building of the Technology and Innovation Park (TIP) Jena after the completion in 2024.

The project commitment is part of an initiative to promote RNA-based technologies. These are to be further advanced in Germany and corresponding production facilities built so that the reagents required for vaccines needed in the future, as well as for new RNA drugs, can be produced quickly in the country.

https://www.uni-jena.de/230130-base

https://idw-online.de/de/news808416

https://www.jenatv.de/mediathek/70083/Millionen_Foerderung_fuer_Forschungsverbund_zur_RNA_Medizin.html

NGP Pharma Polymers
CEOs Dr. Stephanie Schubert & Dr. Georg Hochwimmer
Botzstrasse 5
07743 Jena

stephanie.schubert@ngp-polymers.de georg.hochwimmer@ngp-polymers.de

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