CordenPharma & GE Healthcare Offer Unique End-to-End Solution to Accelerate Oligonucleotide Drug Development

CordenPharma International and GE Healthcare’s Dharmacon business have entered a strategic collaboration to create an end-to-end solution for oligonucleotide-based drug discovery.

The collaboration will address the speed and capacity challenges researchers face when transitioning from research and preclinical stages to drug development and clinical trials. This changeover requires customers to move from a technology vendor to a contract manufacturing organization; compounding this step are capacity challenges in the biotech contract manufacturing marketplace. The collaboration between CordenPharma and GE Healthcare Dharmacon will provide biotech and pharmaceutical customers with a new option to address these challenges.

“Through this agreement, we are bringing GE Healthcare’s Dharmacon product line, which offers leading technical expertise in research-scale design and manufacturing, together with CordenPharma’s deep experience in contract manufacturing,” said Olivier Loeillot, General Manager of GE Healthcare’s Genomics & Cellular Research business. “We can help customers move faster by working together and provide an offering that takes them from bench to batch with one partner.”

CordenPharma International VP of Global Marketing & Sales Michael Quirmbach commented, “This collaboration will further strengthen our newly created service offering in the Oligonucleotide manufacturing field and will uniquely position CordenPharma and Dharmacon in this growing pharmaceutical market segment. Customers will be able to benefit from an efficient end-to-end solution, including drug product supply.”

Dharmacon is part of the GE Healthcare Life Sciences division, and has more than 20 years of experience in custom synthesis of complex RNA oligonucleotides, including very long lengths (>100 nt) and a very broad range of chemical modifications to support research and pre-clinical capacity. The Dharmacon product line includes an extensive portfolio of CRISPR-Cas9 reagents for targeted gene knockout and knock-in studies, as well as a market-leading suite of siRNA reagents for RNA interference.

CordenPharma entered the Oligonucleotide manufacturing field in 2016 by investing in process development, scale-up and cGMP manufacturing at multiple scales in CordenPharma Colorado, where they are currently supporting early stage to clinical phases II / III, with commercial supply capabilities expected to be operational by the end of 2017. The expansion into the oligonucleotide market, which was triggered by an increasingly rich pipeline in the oligonucleotides field, represents a logical move for CordenPharma within their current API and Drug Product offerings and is considered to be synergistic and complementary to their outstanding experience in manufacturing synthetic peptides, lipids and carbohydrates at multiple CordenPharma facilities.

About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter – great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

About CordenPharma
CordenPharma, the global pharmaceutical service & manufacturing platform of International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG), is a full-service partner in the Contract Development & Manufacturing (CDMO) of APIs, Drug Products, and associated Packaging Services. Through a network of fully-inspected cGMP facilities across Europe and the US organized under five technology platforms – Peptides, Oligonucleotides, Lipids & Carbohydrates, Injectables, Highly Potent & Oncology, Small Molecules, Antibiotics – CordenPharma experts translate complex ideas and processes at any stage of development into high-value products. www.cordenpharma.com. Inquiries: www.cordenpharma.com/contact-us/

Media Contacts:

Mia Mallen
Mia.mallen@ge.com
+1 857 260 4055

Sophie White
Sophie.white@ge.com

CordenPharma Contact:
Abby Thompson
T +1 (617) 909-5312
abby.thompson@cordenpharma.com