Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the global leaders in the production of plasmid DNA, and Geneart, global leader in the design and synthesis of genes, announce their technology and sales collaboration. The collaboration includes a transfer of Boehringer Ingelheim technology to Geneart for the production and purification of plasmid DNA. The two partner companies also plan to closely collaborate in the distribution and marketing of their complementary services.

The collaboration offers a unique system solution for the development of DNA-based pharmaceuticals. Geneart will use the Boehringer Ingelheim production and purification technology to deliver DNA-based agents for research, development and preclinical studies. Boehringer Ingelheim will produce the pharmaceuticals under cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practice) conditions for the subsequent clinical phases and the market. Customers in research and industry additionally benefit from Geneart's expertise in software-assisted design of gene sequences and from the production of these improved (optimized) sequences via gene synthesis. Optimized genes are essential for the improvement of product properties, such as for the enhancement of immunogenicity and safety of DNA based pharmaceuticals.

Professor Dr. Ralf Wagner, CEO of the Geneart AG, comments: "The collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim opens new horizons to support customer projects in the fast growing market for DNA-based therapeutics and vaccines. Optimized pharmaceutical agents will be readily available in consistent quality for every development phase either from GENEART or from Boehringer Ingelheim, respectively. This also applies to the necessary quantities for clinical trials or for the product launch. Thus, this collaboration ideally meets the requirements of the regulatory agencies for a consistent source of pharmaceutical agents for the entire development process. Therefore, our customers can avoid unnecessary and expensive delays caused by repeated studies to prove consistent agent quality."

Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Rolf G. Werner, senior vice president of the Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH Corporate Division Biopharmaceuticals, elaborates: "Geneart perfectly complements our services for the development and production of plasmid-DNA for use in clinical trials and for the market. The transfer of technology from Boehringer Ingelheim to GENEART offers flexible access to optimized DNA agents and the benefit of an economic production technology to a broad clientele in R&D. The consistent production procedures help our customers to significantly shorten the time to market for new innovative DNA-based therapeutics and vaccines."