DSM licenses c-LEcta's alcohol dehydrogenases for enzyme screening programs

DSM Pharmaceutical Products, the custom manufacturing organization of Royal DSM NV, today announces a license agreement with c-LEcta GmbH for proprietary screening technology.

The agreement grants DSM rights to c-LEcta's proprietary alcohol dehydrogenases for enzyme screening programs and development of sustainable manufacturing routes for manufacturing of pharmaceutical active ingredients and intermediates. Germany-based c-LEcta is an industrial biotechnology company developing and implementing sustainable and economic industrial processes based on customized enzymes and microbial production strains.

Based on its patent-protected technology platform for the identification and optimization of biocatalysts, cLEcta has built up a unique collection of several hundred enzymes and qualified enzyme mutants. Alcohol dehydrogenases make up one of the important enzyme classes in this field and can be used for the cost efficient synthesis of chiral alcohols from ketones with extraordinary purities.

DSM applies their InnoSyn™ route scouting to identify more cost efficient routes for the development and manufacture of drug intermediates and ingredients by combining biocatalytic solutions with advanced chemical and process technologies. The new routes result in shorter cycle times due to fewer steps in the process with the same reliability and quality using more renewable starting materials. DSM, a global leader in industrial biocatalysis, continuously broadens its enzyme platforms by in-house developments and partnering models with innovative biotech companies such as c-LEcta.

Dr. Oliver May, Business Manager for DSM comments: "This agreement further broadens our alcohol dehydrogenase platform which we set up for rapid screening programs for our customers and the development of cost efficient production of a large spectrum of chiral secondary alcohols."

DSM will also provide commercialization of sustainable enzyme-based manufacturing routes developed by their InnoSyn™ route scouting services for c-LEcta.

Dr. Thomas Greiner-Stoffele, Chief Scientific Officer for c-LEcta added: "We are pleased to have this cooperation with DSM which will give us very useful benchmarks for our alcohol dehydrogenase collection. We are constantly expanding our biocatalysts collection with unique enzymes from biodiversity and engineering projects to provide solutions also for challenging targets."