Touchlight and Versameb sign manufacturing supply agreement

Biotechnology company Touchlight has signed a development and manufacturing pipeline agreement with Versameb focused on urology and oncology.

Through the agreement, Versameb, a pre-clinical stage company will use Touchlight’s proprietary doggybone DNA (dbDNA) vector technology to support the development of novel mRNA-based therapeutics that look to address unmet needs in urology and oncology.

Versameb’s lead candidate, VMB-100, is being developed a potential first-in-class regenerative treatment for Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI), and is expected to enter clinical development in the second half of 2022. Versameb will now use Touchlight’s dbDNA technology for the manufacture and clinical supply of VMB-100 and other future pipeline products.

Touchlight’s dbDNA is a minimal, linear, double stranded, covalently closed DNA vector which is produced through an enzymatic manufacturing process. It can accommodate genes of interest of more than 20kb and is linearly scalable, making it highly adaptable to support a range of genetic medicines.

Karen Fallen, CEO, Touchlight DNA Services said: “We are delighted to be supporting the experienced team at Versameb on the development of its product portfolio. dbDNA has shown superior yield and genetic stability compared to conventional plasmid methods in mRNA production as well as faster GMP manufacturing. Our advanced vector technology and enzymatic process will support the tremendous growth of mRNA technology as well as enabling other plasmid DNA reliant technologies to deliver beyond what is possible with current methods.

“Genetic medicine has proven its potential and is now expected to become a key element in the toolbox of healthcare professionals. However, manufacturing processes also have to evolve, in order to overcome existing bottlenecks. Innovations, such as dbDNA, will be crucial for the advancement of the industry.”

Klaas Zuideveld, CEO of Versameb, added: “We are excited to be driving the necessary activities to take our lead asset to the clinic in the shortest possible timeframe. Working with a company such as Touchlight and to utilise dbDNA as a starting material for the production of our mRNA therapeutics assures a production process which is innovative and gives a competitive advantage. The high stability, quality and speed offered by synthetic replication of DNA, the starting material for mRNA, plays a key role in the production of Versameb’s proprietary biologically optimised VERSagile mRNA pipeline.”