Oligonucleotides
OLIGO@POLYPEPTIDE
We aim to become the partner of choice for the development of Oligonucleotide API. With customer R&D activities at elevated level, we support early-stage projects with GMP capabilities, process and analytical development as well as regulatory support, building on our vast experience in Peptide API development and GMP manufacturing.
Our roadmap
Our efforts to address the emerging customer needs in Oligonucleotides started in 2019. We already manufacture modified oligonucleotides for clinical trials and commercial use, and successfully completed our first oligonucleotides development project in early 2022. We see our OLIGO@POLYPEPTIDE™ initiative as highly synergistic to our peptides business, while recognizing the technical differences, particularly in the upstream manufacturing process. Our OLIGO@POLYPEPTIDE™ facilities are located in Torrance, California, including development laboratories and GMP manufacturing capabilities. Our experts are keen to take you from early phases though to commercialization.
Our capabilities
Our development laboratories are equipped with several OP100 trains and our GMP plant is equipped with several OP400 lines. Additional investment in both areas are planned as we enhance our capabilities and capacity to meet the evolving needs of customers, many of which we already serve through our peptide business.
Our team
Trishul Shah – Director of Business Development and Head of North American Sales. Trishul is involved in industry peer groups such as the TIDES Advisory committee, Boulder Peptide Symposium Scientific Board, a member of the PolyPeptide Group’s Executive Strategic Team in the US and member of the Global Management Group at PolyPeptide.
Tim Culbreth – President – US Operations at PolyPeptide Group, responsible for the two US Sites: San Diego and Torrance. Tim Culbreth has been in the pharmaceutical industry for over 35 years. Tim has worked on multiple facility buildouts, expansions and new construction projects. Tim has also been part of start-up teams for a number of major selling drugs including: simvastatin, omeprazole and capecitabine.
Eran Benjamin – Global Director of Quality Control and Analytical Development, Eran worked for many years with Eli Lilly and Company in the development and commercialization of Insulins and peptide-based therapeutics, and was the Director of characterization science and small molecule analytical development
Brad Grossman – Head of Production, Responsible for GMP operations and manufacturing. Extensive experience managing scale up of clinical and commercial manufacturing in a GMP environment. Background in biochemistry, project management and lean six sigma.
Arnold Kemp – Responsible for day to day operations in the pilot plant. Trained biochemist with over a decade of professional laboratory experience and two years of GMP oligo production management.
Sam Robinson – has several years in the field of biological and chemical manufacturing and development. His experience spans from the biochemical defense to oligonucleotide and peptide therapeutics. He enjoys working as a project manager to contribute meaningful products to the world.
What are Oligonucleotides?
An oligo, or more specifically an oligonucleotide, is best described as a short molecular string consisting of building blocks identical or very similar to the building blocks found in naturally occurring RNA and DNA.
The oligo may be single stranded or double stranded depending of its intended use. There are several classes of oligos named after the intended mechanism of action, for example antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) and RNA interference oligonucleotides (RNAi).
The above-mentioned oligo building blocks consist of three elements: a nucleobase, a sugar and a phosphate. Any of these can be synthetically changed to create a modified oligo, and the changes ranges from a few points of changes to an entire structural element being changed.
Point of Contact: Trishul Shah, Director Business Development, Head of Sales, North America, [email protected]
