ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (ProMetic) announced that its UK subsidiary ProMetic Biosciences Ltd (PBL) has entered into an agreement with Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics GmbH & Co.K.G (Novartis), to develop a synthetic-ligand affinity adsorbent for the purification of a recombinant protein vaccine.

Under the terms of the agreement PBL will receive funding from Novartis to screen its Chemical Combinatorial Libraries for ligands suitable for the process-scale purification of a new vaccine product developed by Novartis and currently undergoing clinical trials. The work is to be conducted at PBL's research laboratories located at the Cambridge Science Park, UK, a ProMetic press release said.

PBL has established itself as a world leader in the area of development and application of affinity ligands for use in the manufacture of biopharmaceutical products. Owing to their high selectivity, robustness and low cost compared to ligands derived from biological sources, Mimetic Ligands provide biopharmaceutical manufacturing companies with numerous advantages, particularly for large-scale production of price-sensitive products. Financial details of this latest affinity ligand project were not disclosed.

According to Dr Steve Burton, CEO of PBL, "we are proud to have been selected by Novartis for this exciting project". "This latest agreement is further recognition of PBL's prominence and successful track record in the development of affinity ligand products for bioprocess applications," Dr Burton added.

ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of a variety of commercial applications derived from its proprietary Mimetic Ligand enabling technology. This technology is used in large-scale purification of biologics and the elimination of pathogens. ProMetic is also active in therapeutic drug development with the mission to bring to market effective, innovative, lower cost, less toxic products for the treatment of inflammation and cancer. Its drug discovery platform is focused on replacing complex, expensive proteins with synthetic "drug-like" protein mimetics.