Novel Therapeutics and Vaccines

As a result of Covid, there has been an explosion in the development of nucleic acid vaccines and therapeutics. There’s significant potential to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of manufacturing approaches to meet the growing demand for these emerging technologies. 

Our RNA Centre of Excellence is the only UK-based open-access facility capable of developing, manufacturing and encapsulating messenger and self-amplifying RNA vaccines and therapies in one location. Here, you’ll find an end-to-end process for developing RNA manufacturing solutions and scaling up RNA therapeutics ready to use in clinical trials.  

Successfully applied as a drug delivery system in mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have the potential to support other vaccines. They could also be utilised across next-generation and personalised medicine, such as gene therapies and protein replacement.  

Through our role in the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce, we’ve built the infrastructure, knowledge and networks to support LNP and the mRNA vaccine and therapeutic development and manufacture at every stage – from benchtop to pre-clinical manufacture. As a result, vaccine companies can develop, prove, and scale up and manufacture their COVID-19 vaccines and RNA manufacturing platforms with us.  

We’re also involved in oligonucleotides, developing new manufacturing processes to get these promising drugs to market faster. This therapeutic approach allows the targeting of molecules that conventional drug modalities cannot tackle, with the potential to treat underlying genetic drivers of disease.

What are the main challenges facing RNA-based medicines?

Medicines based on RNA technology require innovation in manufacturing to enhance scalability, reduce costs, enhance sustainability and ensure Critical Quality Attributes are tightly controlled. Characterisation of these complex products is challenging and also requires innovation. Drug delivery is critical to these therapies' stability, targeting and effectiveness. Still, innovation is needed to develop improved manufacturing and characterisation approaches and understand how the formulation of these drug delivery systems can be tuned to enhance thermostability, targeting, safety and effectiveness. Approaches. Beyond LNPs, a huge range of emerging drug delivery systems require support to develop robust manufacturing approaches.   

How is CPI tackling these challenges?

We share our manufacturing processes and supply chain expertise to help pharmaceutical companies develop cutting-edge medicines and therapies. We can help you with R&D and GMP activities, building cross-functional teams tailored to unique business needs that offer the support, facilities, and guidance for product innovation.  

We’re the only UK-based organisation capable of developing, manufacturing and encapsulating messenger and self-amplifying RNA vaccines and therapies ready for use in clinical trials in one location through our end-to-end process for RNA development and scale-up. We also deliver industry-focused learning courses within RNA manufacturing, scale-up, and analytics, which are CPD-certified. 

At our new RNA Centre of Excellence, we can run mRNA synthesis reactions in volumes up to 10L, with the equivalent book for LNP encapsulation. Our expertise and partnerships with leading organisations across the UK enable us to reduce the risk around drug delivery system development, overcome RNA challenges, and accelerate time to market.  

Our Intracellular Drug Delivery Centre brings together leading research centres and Catapult experts across the UK to support academia and industry, providing access to cutting-edge technologies to accelerate the design, formulation, characterisation, and manufacture of non-viral and advanced drug delivery systems for nucleic acid payloads. It ensures LNPs and novel drug delivery systems are available to complement RNA therapeutics. 

As a result of Government investment, we can manufacture millions of doses of a vaccine if needed for a future healthcare emergency.  

Meanwhile, a collaborative project at our Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre is revolutionising oligonucleotide manufacturing. This partnership between industry and government) aims to develop a scalable, sustainable, and more cost-effective approach.