Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 13, 2020) - Willow Biosciences WLLW CANSF has achieved its first major commercial milestone by delivering a proprietary cannabinoid-producing yeast strain to its scale-up development partner, Albany Molecular Research, Inc. ("AMRI") to begin the process of scaling up production to commercial volumes. AMRI, a global contract research and manufacturing organization, partners with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.
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With locations in North America, Europe and Asia, AMRI's team combines scientific expertise and market-leading technology to provide a complete suite of solutions in Discovery, Development, Analytical Services, API Manufacturing and Drug Product.
Calgary-based Willow, a Canadian biotechnology company, produces high purity, plant-derived compounds that provide building blocks for the global pharmaceutical, health and wellness, and consumer packaged goods industries. Willow's manufacturing process creates a consistent, scalable and sustainable product that allows for the discovery and development of new life changing drugs.
Willow's successful yeast-strain engineering efforts have created multiple cannabinoid strains with promising properties that the company will use as a basis for commercialization. The company's skilled science team were able to reach this critical step ahead of its initial expectations and combined with its partnership with AMRI, the Company expects to reach its commercialization phase in the first half of 2021, six months sooner than originally expected.
Trevor Peters, CEO, stated: "We are extremely pleased with the success of our scientists. Their ability to create the yeast strain that will form the base of our future production ahead of expectations, is a testament to their skill and expertise. As we move into the scale-up phase of our development, our partnership with AMRI positions us for future success. AMRI has significant experience and substantial resources to support not only the technical development and implementation of our scale up, but also brings several other valuable strengths for commercial development, including regulatory and quality-control capabilities."
Willow has started its initial development scale up-work in lab scale fermentation vessels with the goal of reaching a 500 litre pilot scale demonstration by the fourth quarter of 2020, which includes iterative strain development to increase the cannabinoid concentration of the yeast cell, fermentation optimization, and purification of the fermentation broth into the pure cannabinoid. Following the pilot project, Willow expects to advance the scale up to larger, commercial-scale fermentation vessels as early as the first half of 2021.
Pete Michels, Head of Global Fermentation, AMRI, stated: "Having more than 15 years of experience in the manufacture of cannabinoids (pharmaceutical- and consumer-grade), as well as in industrial fermentation, we are particularly impressed with Willow's approach to synthetic biology - and specifically for cannabinoid production via fermentation. We're excited about Willow's unique technical capabilities - including their execution of plant gene discovery and rapid strain engineering - to maximize the options for successfully delivering new, commercially-relevant fermentation processes."
Willow's current focus is in the production of cannabinoids for the treatment for pain, anxiety, obesity, brain disorders, among other significant indications. Willow's science team has a proven track record of developing manufacturing technologies for high purity compounds in pain and cancer treatments.
For more information, please visit the company's website www.willowbio.com, contact Trevor Peters, CEO at 403-669-4848 or email t.peters@willowbio.com or Troy Talkkari, VP Corporate Development, at 403-618-1117 or by email at t.talkkari@willowbio.com.
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