EU BUSINESS NEWS / November 2017 5 NEWS , On the 14th November, innovator in sustainable products to improve worldwide food security, Calysta, Inc. announced that the company and two partners have been awarded the 2017 IChemE Global Team Award for excellence at Calysta’s UK production facility in Teesside. The IChemE awards are given annu- ally by the Institution of Chemical En- gineers, and this year the competition attracted more than 140 entries from 21 countries. Calysta, the Centre for Process Inno- vation and Otto Simon Ltd received the award for design, construction and successful launch of Calysta’s new market introduction facility in Teesside. The plant uses Calysta’s innovative gas-phase fermentation process to produce FeedKind® protein, a feed-quality protein for use in fish and livestock feed. John McGagh, IChemE’s president, said: “IChemE’s Team Award is important because it celebrates collaboration and diversity of thinking – something that is integral to robust, sustainable outcomes that benefit society. “Calysta UK, the Centre for Process Innovation and Otto Simon have proved this through their winning project. They have delivered a plant with environmental and ecological impact at the forefront of the planning process, and delivered a facility which will ultimately tackle one of the biggest issues facing the population – food security.” “We want to congratulate the entire team at all three organizations for this significant honor,” said Graham Aylen, Calysta Vice President of Capital Projects. “Thanks to excellent engineering collaboration from the project team, the plant was delivered against a fast-tracked construction program with zero injuries. Samples have been distributed worldwide for feeding trials, marking a significant step towards engineering a sustain- On the 13th November, Morphotek®, Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., announced that it will present its Residue-Specific Conjugation Technology (RESPECT) at the 9th Annual Protein & Antibody Engineering Summit (PEGS) Europe being held November 13-17 at Epic Sana Lisboa Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal. The presentation will take place on Tuesday, November 14 at 12:15 p.m. local time during the Next-Gen Engineering stream. RESPECT is a site-specific conjugation technology that targets select amino acid residues as a way of producing investigational homogeneous ADCs with defined drug-to-antibody ratios. The platform allows for site-specific conjugation of a single cytotoxic payload or two payloads with different mechanisms of action. It employs a proprietary high-throughput screening system that can simultaneously evaluate hundreds of ADC products consisting of variable antibody candidates linked to cytotoxic payloads to identify those optimal for client-desired biophysical properties, target-specific binding and potential therapeutic efficacy. As part of Morphotek’s ADC Services, a proprietary payload, which incorporates the FDA- approved eribulin, which is modified via a chemical linker, is offered as an option to develop investigational ADCs for companies interested in developing next-generation formats of their own antibodies.* “We are pleased to have this opportunity to present our proprietary RESPECT platform at the upcoming PEGS Europe,” said Nicholas Nicolaides, President and CEO of Morphotek. “In this presentation, we will highlight our transglutaminase- based conjugation technology that targets specific lysine residues in IgG antibodies and uses a single amino acid addition or substitution to efficiently produce homogeneous site-specific antibody conjugates, suitable for scalable manufacturing.” Morphotek’s end-to-end ADC Services business allows for multiple entry points for clients, starting from development of an antigen site-specific bioconjugate- ready monoclonal antibody and ADC to in vivo safety and efficacy validation. Additional options include manufacture of GMP clinical trial material, GLP toxicology studies and development of IHC companion diagnostics for patient screening. For more information on Morphotek’s ADC Services business and RESPECT™ platform, please contact
[email protected]. *The ADC described herein is investigational, as efficacy and safety have not been established. There is no guarantee that this ADC will be available commercially. able food source for the growing global population.” “Structuring the project team and the execution programme to take us from a blank sheet of paper through the design stages to a detailed construction, commissioning and operational programme were critical in enabling such a complex fast-track project to be successful,” said Kris Wadrop, Platform Director for the Industrial Biotechnology and Biore- fining business in CPI. “Combining a motivated and passionate customer with a knowledgeable multi-discipli- nary team of scientists and engineers proved an outstanding combination for this project.” Peter Creer of Otto Simon Ltd said: “Otto Simon enjoyed a very effective collaboration with Calysta and CPI on the project, which was key to delivering this unique plant success- fully and safely against a very tight deadline. “It is rewarding to have been part of a project that has the potential to make such a major contribution to society, and we are delighted that our team’s achievements have been recognized with such a prestigious award.” Calysta has put state of the art manufacturing and quality assurance processes in place at Teesside resulting frommore than 10 years of research and development. In May, Calysta announced successful production of the first four metric tons of FeedKind protein from the facility, and to date the Teesside plant has produced over 10 metric tons. The facility has recently completed a 12-week continuous run, and has performed to target metrics of yield, productivity and quality. FeedKind protein is a family of natu- ral, sustainable, and traceable feed ingredients for fish, livestock and pets. It is a safe, non-animal source of protein approved for sale and use in the EU and is being developed to help meet the world’s growing demand for food. Presenting Proprietary RESPECT™ at the 9th annual PEGS Europe Morphotek to present its Proprietary RESPECT™ Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) Technology at the upcoming 9th annual PEGS Europe in Lisbon.