Technology Platform and Partnering Strategy
Exopharm is investing in three interrelated technologies to support partnering transactions:
- Precision medicine exosomes satisfy the needs of well-funded pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. With our exosome engineering technologies (LOAD for the addition of RNA and EVPS for the addition of proteins) and LEAP, our aim is to be an active partner with major pharmaceutical companies in the rapidly developing exosome medicine field.
- Our manufacturing expertise and intellectual property solve key EV manufacturing problems and demonstrate our leadership in this burgeoning space.
eVICI and Research
Exopharm is rapidly expanding its exosome portfolio, from engineering exosomes to isolation, characterisation and functional research. If you are conducting research into exosomes, it is likely that the eVICI platform could accelerate your work. If you have unique IP in the field, it may have value for Exopharm. Contact us to initiate in-licensing or collaborative research discussions: partnering@exopharm.com
Partnering with Exopharm
Exopharm is actively seeking partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies with interest in bringing exosome-based medicines to their therapeutic areas.
What Exopharm brings to partnerships:
Clinical-scale manufacturing
LEAP Technology enables:
-Fast and cost-effective exosome isolation from biofluids or culture media including platelets, mesenchymal stem cells, iPSCs, other cells (e.g. CAR-T cells)
-Maximum yield from micro-liter bench-scale to multi-liter bioreactor scale volumes with full preservation of exosome integrity
-GMP purification of exosomes for clinical applications
LOADing specialised cargo
Exopharm’s loading technology enables the insertion of specially-designed nucleic acids to the payloads of exosomes. Nucleic acids including mRNA, RNAi and siRNA can modify how cells operate.
Targeted delivery
Exopharm’s proprietary technology enables the attachment of custom proteins to the surface of exosomes. This allows targeting of exosomes to selected cell types.
Analytics & characterization
Exopharm holds a comprehensive suite of EV characterization and analysis technologies along with deep experience in EV medicine formulation, assays and release.
Dedicated BD Scientists
Exopharm is so committed to making partnerships successful that we have senior researchers directly integrated into our partnership team. Partnering with Exopharm means fast and meaningful results that will de-risk and size opportunities quickly.
Laura Vella
Exopharm Scientific AdvisorDr Laura Vella has longstanding experience in the study of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their role in disease progression. She completed her PhD on prion disease at The University of Melbourne with Professor Andrew Hill, establishing an on-going research program on the role of extracellular vesicles in neurodegeneration.
Her discoveries include the identification of EVs in cerebrospinal fluid and the finding that misfolded proteins can spread to distant cell types via EVs. She has demonstrated the role of EVs in the transfer of drug resistance and developed methodology for EV isolation and characterisation.
Dr Vella has held Post-Doctoral positions in The Department of Pathology at The University of Melbourne as a Viertel Foundation Research Fellow and The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at The Austin Hospital. She moved to The Neurotherapeutics Laboratory within The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in 2015 and in 2019 was awarded an American Alzheimer’s Association Fellowship. She now leads The Extracellular Vesicle Laboratory at The Florey Institute where her team studies the function and biomarker potential of EVs in a range of neurological disorders.
Jennifer King
Exopharm Scientific AdvisorJennifer King, a Principal at King BioConsulting, has over 20 years of operating experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. King BioConsulting provides business development and strategic support for biotechnology companies and other key stakeholders, with a focus on cutting edge technologies and orphan indications. From 2015 to 2019 Jenn served at Intellia Therapeutics, a CRISPR Cas9 genome editing start-up, completing her tenure as Senior Vice President for Business Development. Jenn founded and grew the Business Development and New Product Commercialization groups at Intellia and was responsible for accessing external sources of innovation, establishing the company’s key industry partnerships, overseeing the alliance management activities for these partnerships and developing commercial strategies and frameworks for Intellia’s genome editing platform.
Prior to her joining Intellia in 2015, Jenn held the position of Senior Director of Business Development at Shire Plc, (now Takeda) where she was responsible for the sourcing, initial evaluation and negotiation of licensing and acquisition opportunities within the company’s corporate development group. She previously worked in Shire’s rare disease commercial organization as a Global Brand Director for two clinical-stage programs and served as its Director of New Products, where she was responsible for providing commercial guidance to development and research stage projects, as well as evaluating the commercial attractiveness of business development opportunities. Before joining Shire in 2006, Jennifer held a variety of commercial roles in at Millennium Pharmaceuticals; most notably as the Product Manager for the US launch of VELCADE®.
Jennifer received her B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earned a Ph.D. in Developmental Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and was awarded her MBA by Northeastern University. In addition to a passion for biology and the biopharmaceutical industry, Jenn is an avid sailor and world traveller, and just completed her 100th scuba dive.
A partnership with Exopharm can:
- Translate exosome potential in your target therapeutic area (such as neurology, cancer, or autosomal diseases) into legitimate development plans
- Quickly de-risk exosome investments
- Accelerate product-to-market timelines
- Solve manufacturing challenges early to kick-start non-clinical and clinical trials
- Provide a layer of patent protection to future offerings, either through new composition of matter IP using EVs (extend patent life of APIs) or by adding proprietary processes early in product development
Partner with Exopharm to jointly push the boundaries in transformative medicine and to expedite the development of exosome-based therapies for patients.
Contact us to initiate partnering discussions: partnering@exopharm.com