Cobrabio and ViroMed to form R&D and commercial supply joint venture

Cobra Biomanufacturing, based in Keele, UK, and founded by Nigel Slater at Cambridge University, has extended its manufacturing agreement with ViroMed, a South Korean biotechnology company focused on the development of novel gene and protein-based therapeutics for human diseases, for its proprietary DNA product VM206RY used in the treatment of specific cancer tumours expressing Her2/neu genes.

The collaboration will provide a research, development and technical consultancy agreement for all ViroMed products, and guarantee ViroMed with manufacturing and process development resources. A memorandum of understanding has also been signed between the two companies in view of establishing a joint venture commercial scale biomanufacturing company that will manufacture ViroMed products for commercial supply.

Under the terms of these agreements, Cobrabio will continue to manufacture ViroMed’s plasmid DNA therapeutic, VM206RY, for the treatment of tumours expressing Her2/neu.

Simon Saxby, CEO of Cobra Biomanufacturing, said: “The further development of our partnership with ViroMed is a very positive step forward for Cobrabio, providing a strong medium to long term business forecast. Having worked closely with ViroMed to develop a successful manufacturing process for its plasmid DNA product we are delighted to enter into a long term agreement, with a broad scope that will bring significant benefits to both parties.”

Dr. Sunyoung Kim, CEO of ViroMed, said: “This collaboration agreement with Cobrabio will provide quality delivery of cGMP products to ViroMed which will extend the relationship to establish a JV company.”