Global launch of bead-encoding technology producing customized affinity ligands for protein purification in biopharmaceutical production 

Valby, Denmark, June 28, 2006. VersaMatrix A/S today announced the global launch of Versaffin™, the Company’s proprietary bead-encoding technology to produce Customized Affinity Ligands – small molecules that can selectively bind and release desired proteins and other biomolecules.  Ligands derived using Versaffin™ provide superior performance in affinity chromatography for the purification of biopharmaceutical drugs.

The production of biopharmaceutical products can be a costly process, with 50-80% of the cost being accrued in down stream purification processes. And with tight time constraints, a rapid means of developing purification processes is essential. Affinity chromatography has been known for some time to be one of the most effective methods of protein purification but has historically been problematic because of insufficient access to selective, robust, high affinity ligands. VersaMatrix has developed Versaffin™ to solve this problem by ensuring the fast, and thereby cost-effective, development of Customized Affinity Ligands. The technology provides information on relative binding and elution of target proteins to all members of large libraries of ligands.  Using this approach, companies can save between 15 and 20% on production costs.

Ib Johannsen, VersaMatrix’ CEO commented:

“Versaffin™ ensures that affinity ligands can be developed in a matter of weeks instead of months. This time reduction translates into cost savings for cash strapped biopharmaceutical companies moving into protein production. We are confident that our technology will help the industry boost its profits from biopharmaceuticals!”

The scientific basis of Versaffin™ was originally developed at the Carlsberg Research Centre in Copenhagen. VersaMatrix was founded in September 2002 to commercialise the research and the result is the Versaffin™ bead-encoding technology. VersaMatrix is wholly owned by Carlsberg A/S.

About VersaMatrix

VersaMatrix A/S is a biotech company focused on the provision of protein purification technologies. In cooperation with customers in the Pharmaceutical Industry it has been demonstrated that  the Versaffin™ technology offers fast and efficient affinity ligand screening and resin development. The Customized Affinity Ligands derived using Versaffin™ are intended for protein purification in the production of biopharmaceutical products but can be extended to other applications wherein a good ligand is needed. This technology was developed in conjunction with the Carlsberg Research Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark. VersaMatrix is wholly owned by Carlsberg A/S and located in Valby, Denmark.

Further Information:

Notes to editors:

Versaffin™ is a bead encoding technology that enables individual tracking of polymer beads during solid-phase synthesis of affinity ligand libraries. The affinity of the resulting ligand candidates toward a given target protein is determined by on-bead screening. The chemical structure of active ligands (high affinity ligands) is derived immediately by reading the code of individual beads. In this way, time-consuming and often ambiguous spectroscopic elucidation of the chemical structure of active ligands is avoided. The technology further enables structure determination of an entire combinatorial library. The combined knowledge opens a window to a whole new set of possibilities within library screening.