Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on innovative solutions for the pharma sector. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we want to share our insights with you. This time, you will discover 5 promising low-volume production solutions.
Heat Map: 5 Top Low-Volume Production Solutions
Using our StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 1.379.000+ startups & scaleups globally, we looked at innovation in the field of pharma. For this research, we identified 64 relevant solutions and picked 5 to showcase below. These companies were chosen based on a data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and relevance of technology, among others. Depending on your specific criteria, the top picks might look entirely different.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 startups & scaleups developing innovative low-volume production solutions in pharma. Moreover, the Heat Map reveals regions that observe a high startup activity and illustrates the geographic distribution of all 64 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
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Exelead – PEGylated Formulations
As pharma startups start catering to the needs of rare disease patients, it brings new production challenges. Obviously, far lesser quantities of drugs are needed for the treatment of rare diseases. This demands changes in pharma manufacturing that meet the needs of low-volume production. Contract manufacturers are working on solutions to make low-volume pharma manufacturing economically viable.
Exelead is a US-based startup that develops innovative drug products. The startup provides small-batch pharmaceutical manufacturing solutions for liposomal and PEGylated formulations. Exelead’s solutions bring the benefits of PEGylation to drugs being manufactured for small patient populations. The startup serves the formulation analysis and manufacturing process development needs of pharma startups.
Scinogy – Cell Therapy Manufacture
Unlike off-the-shelf medicines, personalized therapeutics companies produce drugs separately for each patient in low volumes. This is also what makes autologous cell therapies expensive. Each patient’s cells are extracted, genetically modified, and then transplanted back. Unlike chemical drugs, the process is also not scalable. As cell therapies show promise for the treatment of many diseases, including cancer, there is a need for inexpensive and reliable low-volume production methods.
Australian startup Scinogy offers cell therapy manufacturing solutions. The startup develops a pilot manufacturing system, as well as a closed, automated, and integrated processing system, specially designed for autologous cell therapy. The startup also develops a counter-flow centrifuge that meets the needs of low-volume cell therapy manufacture. Scinofy’s solutions enable high-quality and affordable cell therapies.
Gyroscope Therapeutics – One-Time Gene Therapy
Pharma startups are developing one-time-use gene therapies for the treatment of several diseases, including sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. However, the development and manufacture of gene therapies are very expensive. Just like autologous cell therapies, they are personalized to each patient and produced in low volume. Startups are working on low-volume manufacturing solutions that bring down the cost of gene therapy manufacturing.
Gyroscope Therapeutics develops gene therapies and delivery technologies. The startup’s platform enables the rapid and secure manufacture of novel adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies. GT005, the startup’s candidate, delivers their investigational gene therapy through an injection below the patient’s retina and restores the balance to the complement system. The startup is investigating the efficacy of its gene therapy in the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
QATCH Technologies – Biopharmaceuticals
Chemical drugs need massive investments in development but are inexpensive to manufacture. Biopharmaceuticals, on the other hand, are expensive to manufacture as well. Therefore, it is crucial to screen them for manufacturability at earlier stages with low-volume samples. Pharma startups are working on technologies to prescreen biopharmaceutical drugs for the ease of manufacturability.
The US-based startup QATCH Technologies develops a tool to prescreen injectability and manufacturability of biopharmaceutical drugs. The startup’s solution needs 5 microliters of the biopharmaceutical formulation to run the assay. The test is then complete in 2 minutes, without the need for any cleaning or priming steps. Additionally, QATCH’s sensor calculates shear rates to determine the injection forces and manufacturability for the biopharmaceutical formulation.
BrainXell – Human iPSC-Derived Neurons
As stem cell technologies mature, such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), more pharma startups are using them for drug development. Stem cell-based platforms find applications in discovering drug targets and toxicology testing, among others. Patient-derived stem cells, for use in autologous cell therapies or just to screen for targets, provide personalized drug insights. As a result, pharma startups are developing low-volume production solutions that meet the demands of patient-derived stem cells.
BrainXell is a US-based startup that provides human iPSC-derived neurons for therapeutic development. With a low-volume production platform, the startup grows patient-derived iPSCs and derives the desired neuron type. The startup develops spinal motor neurons, midbrain dopaminergic neurons, microglia, cortical astrocytes, and other neural cells. The startup also offers off-the-shelf iPSC-derived neurons for applications in drug discovery, as well as in the research of the central nervous system (CNS).
What about the other 59 solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence and enable you to achieve your goals faster. The 5 low-volume production solutions showcased above are promising examples out of the 64 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria, get in touch.
