Germany’s CEVEC Pharmaceuticals and the UK’s Evox Therapeutics have signed a license agreement covering development and commercialization of therapeutic exosomes using CEVEC’s proprietary CAP technology. Improvements in targeted drug delivery are expected.

The agreement builds on an ongoing collaboration between the two companies that is claimed to have demonstrated the suitability of the technology to produce exosomes.

Under the arrangement, Evox, a privately held, Oxford-based biotech focused on improving the natural delivery capabilities of exosomes to develop a new class of therapeutics, will develop CAP-derived exosomes for several disease areas and indications, while CEVEC will be eligible for milestone payments and royalties.

Further financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

CEVEC’s CAP technology platform comprises a comprehensive portfolio of optimized human suspension cell lines that allows the fully scalable and efficient production for a variety of complex biomolecules including proteins, viral vectors, vaccines and exosomes.

The German pharma said CAP cells can be engineered to express specific macromolecules on the outer surface as well as in the inside of exosomes. Growing in suspension in chemically defined media, they enable an easy scale-up of the production process to commercial volumes.

In various projects, CAP cells are said to have generated high yields of very homogenous high-quality exosomes, verifying the technology as effective and safe.

“Over the past years, our CAP cells have shown perfect suitability for the production of various complex therapeutics, including recombinant proteins and viral vectors for gene therapy applications. CEVEC said, adding that they are now enabling pharma and biotech companies to enter into a new field of promising therapeutic modalities and targeted drug delivery.”

Evox has created substantial proprietary technology to modify exosomes using various molecular engineering, drug loading and targeting strategies.

Given their natural structure and characteristics, exosomes are regarded as highly effective drug carriers for different synthetic and biological therapeutic agents including nucleic acids and proteins. Their natural ability to carry therapeutic molecules across membranes, including the blood-brain-barrier, make exosomes a promising new means of achieving targeted drug delivery.