Singapore: Australia's Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) has funded the start-up firm Solvanix, an early stage biotechnology company with a novel technology for improving stability and reducing the aggregation of fully human antibodies, developed by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research.

Solvanix' StAbilizetechnology works by maximizing colloidal stability and by reducing aggregation of monoclonal antibody products. The StAbilize process optimizes amino acids at specific locations within the antibody complementarity determining regions (CDRs). The result is a fully human antibody with drastically improved stability and a reduced propensity to aggregate that still retains all the properties necessary for therapeutic use.

Solvanix will work with the biotech and pharma industries developing therapeutic antibodies incorporating the StAbilize technology.

The MRCF, managed by Brandon Capital Partners, has committed $2 million to fund Solvanix and establish a service business that allows the rapid incorporation of the StAbilizetechnology into human antibody candidates at all stages of development and commercialization. The company will be based at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia.

Commenting on the new company, Mr Chris Smith, non-executive director, Solvanix and investment manager, Brandon Capital Partners, said "Solvanix is a great example of the pioneering technologies that the MRCF is set up to commercialize. This is the only broadly applicable technology proven to reduce antibody aggregation. StAbilize has a broad range of benefits such that it should be a game-changing addition to the global antibody therapeutics industry."