Willow to enter next phase of partnered pharmaceutical project
by CM staff
The phase represents early progress for targeted milestones anticipated for 2023 to expand company growth.
CALGARY — Willow Biosciences Inc., a biotechnology company focused manufacturing sustainable functional ingredients announced a follow-on engagement with Sandhill One, LLC for the next phase in optimizing a proprietary enzyme vital to the development of a large volume Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) used in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products.
This represents the continuation of the project, the first phase of which the company announced May 31, 2022.
“We are very pleased that following our success on the first phase of development, our partner has seen the tremendous value Willow can provide in leveraging its precision fermentation technology to foster cost effective innovation in the development of APIs,” said Dr. Peter Seufer-Wasserthal, President and CEO, Willow. “We are excited to start off the year with this new agreement, which further illustrates our continued portfolio diversification beyond cannabinoids and represents early progress against our stated goals for 2023 to expand our growth with a keen focus on near-term revenue generation.”
Sandhill is partnered with a large-cap, multi-national healthcare company and the targeted product is manufacture of the large volume API, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). UDCA is used as a medication for the management and treatment of cholestatic liver disease and gallstone conditions, and as an important intermediate for production of tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), a key API in a combination therapy recently approved in Canada and the United States for treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The process under development between the company and Sandhill represents a step-change in the production of UDCA, as it will not rely on animal-sourced raw materials, as is the case with most current manufacturing of UDCA and other cholic acids, and is expected to be lower in cost.
In this next phase of development, the company anticipates several hundred thousand U.S. dollars in research fees, along with a milestone payment later this year for initial production batches. Upon completion, it is expected that Willow’s proprietary, optimized enzyme will be taken toward commercialization for the end market active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), where Willow will receive additional milestone and production-based royalty payments.
