German affinity chromatography tech firm changes hands, changes name
“It will be business as usual” at the newly-named entity, CEO Dr. Henning Afflerbach told Biopharma-Reporter, after UV-Cap acquired 100% of the shares of Scil Proteins from Bionet Ventures.
While the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, Navigo Proteins will be operated through two separate business units: Navigo Precision Targeting and Navigo Precision Capturing, the latter focused on the firm’s affinity products intended for use in the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals.
The company – based in Halle, Germany – is developing an antibody capture technology based on its Protein A variant.
Protein A has become the most widely used resin to capture monoclonal antibodies due to its ligand binding capabilities, and Navigo’s collaboration projects aim to engineer and develop a new generation of Protein A resin with higher caustic stability and dynamic binding capacity.
But Afflerbach told us the firm is also using its proprietary protein engineering platform to create Affilin scaffold proteins which he said will offer drugmakers similar levels of stability and efficiency as Protein A but for non-antibody-based products.
“The goal is to cover the entire biomanufacturing world, from antibodies to such products as hormones, growth factors and vaccines.”
Both Navigo’s Affilin and Protein A platforms aim to minimise the risks when capturing molecules in the downstream process, he continued, as well as shortening development timelines and facilitating scalability.
The firm has a number of partnerships for Affilin and Protein A, including a collaboration with struck last December for the engineering and development of a Protein A ligand to be integrated with the Canadian chromatography firm Natrix’ membrane technology.
