DSM Venturing, the corporate venturing unit of Royal DSM N.V., today announced
that it has participated in an equity investment round in the Danish company
Upfront Chromatography, the world's leading developer of customized industrial
protein chromatography processes. The down stream processing platform
developed by Upfront is of great potential to contribute to all
biotechnology-derived products from DSM. DSM is joined in this investment
round by financial investors InnovationsKapital and NBGI Ventures.
DSM Pharmaceutical Products is a global provider of custom manufacturing
services to the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries with a broad
menu of services in protein production and in clinical, commercial and fill
and finish areas. The company’s achievements in biopharmaceutical production
have resulted in a significant urgency to realize breakthroughs in downstream
processing, enabling more efficient purification of monoclonal antibodies and
other biopharmaceutical proteins. Leendert Staal, CEO of DSM Pharmaceutical
Products, comments: “Upfront is at the forefront of technological
breakthroughs in downstream processing. Through our investment we want to
support further developments in the company which will benefit both DSM and
Upfront.”
With its proprietary technology platform, called Rhobust™, Upfront focuses on
two major application areas. The first one is Bioprocess, which offers novel
solutions to customers who need to recover and purify monoclonal antibodies,
therapeutic proteins and other biomolecules from blood plasma or bioreactors,
under cGMP-compliant conditions. In the second area, Biomine, Rhobust™ enables
the isolation of high-value functional proteins and other biomolecules from
bioreactors or industrial process side-streams for use as food ingredients,
industrial enzymes, nutraceuticals and healthcare products. The areas in which
Upfront is active are of interest to various DSM entities that apply
fermentation processes.
In addition to the investment, DSM and Upfront have signed a collaboration
agreement with the aim of further developing the Rhobust™ technology for the
purification of monoclonal antibodies.
DSM Venturing
DSM Venturing is an active investor in emerging
companies and Venture Capital Funds in DSM’s strategic growth fields
Nutrition, Pharma and Performance Materials. DSM Venturing's mission is to
explore emerging markets and technologies in these strategic growth fields in
order to enhance DSM's product portfolio and create value. DSM Venturing also
plays an active role in the development of several new DSM business
opportunities in the so-called emerging business areas Biomedical, Industrial
(White) Biotechnology, Specialty Packaging and Personalized Nutrition. For
more information about DSM Venturing see www.dsm venturing.com.
Upfront
Upfront Chromatography A/S develops and manufactures
innovative products and technologies for extraction and recovery of
biotherapeutics, functional biomolecules, macromolecular complexes, and even
living cells, directly from bioreactors and industrial side-streams. For
customised separation services, Upfront offers access to its proprietary
Rhobust™ universal process platform combined with extensive technical and
regulatory support. From a feasibility study to commissioning of the final
installation, Upfront works with its customers to develop adsorbents, ligand
chemistry, columns and other hardware to optimize process performance. Upfront
are currently developing the world’s largest chromatography system. Upfront’s
research, development and ISO9001-compliant manufacturing facility is situated
in Copenhagen, Denmark. For more information, visit: www.upfront-dk.com.
