Almac and DSM Pharmaceutical Products, the custom manufacturing and technology business of Royal DSM N.V., have entered into a collaboration agreement to provide sustainable manufacturing services in the field of biocatalysis.
 
The agreement grants both parties access to their enzyme platform technologies and services for the manufacture of APIs. Almac will leverage its expertise in rapid enzyme identification, scale-up and implementation into early phase projects, and DSM will leverage its experience of more than 30 commercial manufacturing bioprocesses run on a multi-ton scale. This collaboration also allows Almac to offer its customers a preferred partner for large-scale production.
 
Alexander Wessels, chief executive officer of DSM Pharmaceutical Products, stated, “Working with the Almac Group marks further advancement of DSM’s stated strategy towards strategic partnerships to excel in providing new customer solutions. DSM is a global leader in applied biocatalysis, providing high quality custom manufacturing and development services to the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. Via this agreement, we maintain our commitment to the future of pharma manufacturing, adding to our green chemistry toolbox, which also includes complex chemical solutions and more efficient manufacturing with micro reactors, where DSM is unique in its pilot to commercial scale up offering.”
 
Dr. Tom Moody, Head of Almac Biocatalysis, stated “This collaboration has come at the right time as more and more customers need scalable green technologies to access difficult-to-make chiral chemicals.  Having access to the right enzymes today will drive ‘hit to process’.” The introduction of enzymes into processes earlier in the drug discovery pipeline will therefore help to drive cost down as the projects move forward”. Dr. Stephen Barr, Managing Director of Almac’s Sciences business unit, added, “The synergies between Almac and DSM are not superseded today by any other collaboration in this area.  Our customers will see real rewards from the fact that any bioprocess developed can go from conception to manufacture quickly within this agreement.”