BioWorld International Correspondent

VersaMatrix A/S, a spin-off from the brewing giant Carlsberg A/S, is launching a new method for rapid identification of custom affinity ligands for use in protein purification, based on a proprietary 'bead-encoding' technology, and is seeking investment from industrial partners.

The Valby, Denmark-based company, which was established in 2002, has spent more than three years working on a technology that had originated in the Carlsberg Research Center in Copenhagen. The result, called Versaffin, will help combinatorial chemistry deliver on the promise that it offered in the 1990s as a shortcut to developing novel compounds, said CEO Ib Johannsen. "The big problem at that time, and in general still, is you can spend an awful long time afterward identifying the good compounds," he told BioWorld International.

With Versaffin, each compound is tethered to a bead - synthesized from a modified, cross-linked form of polyethylene glycol - which can be uniquely identified via a fluorescent tag that is incorporated during the fabrication process. VersaMatrix is positioning the technology initially as a means of identifying small-molecule affinity ligands for use in affinity chromatography. "It's a niche where it's easier to develop the technology," Johannsen said. The company aims to move it into other areas, such as drug discovery, as it matures.

In affinity chromatography, Johannsen said, Versaffin will lead to significant time savings, as it currently takes upward of a year to generate a new ligand. "We can design, synthesize, screen and identify these ligands within six weeks," he said.

The company aims to have the technology incorporated into the production processes of companies engaged in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. It claims it can cut production costs by 15 percent to 20 percent. Existing chromatography-based protein purification processes involve four to six costly steps, each of which has to be validated separately. While protein A-based purification processes used in monoclonal antibody production require just two steps, Versaffin can help to identify affinity ligands with greater chemical stability, Johannsen said. "What is really competing against this technology is the traditional chromatography processes that are used in the biopharmaceutical industry today," he said.

Part of the underlying bead technology concepts also facilitated the establishment of another Carlsberg spin-off, drug discovery specialist Combio A/S. That company, which focused on using bead technology to integrate combinatorial chemistry synthesis and screening, was acquired by Arpida AG, of Muenchenstein, Switzerland. (See BioWorld International, Oct. 20, 2004.)

VersaMatrix aquired part of the patent estate of that entity. It also acquired intellectual property from an unnamed UK company, from several individual inventors, and has developed IP in-house. It has 20 patent families, five of which are granted, Johannsen said. The company still is a wholly owned subsidiary of Carlsberg, but not for long. "We are looking for investment partners right now," Johannsen said.