UK-based drug development and manufacturing accelerator Quotient Sciences and technology innovation centre CPI announced on Tuesday that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to form a joint venture (JV) aimed at accelerating the development of RNA-based therapies.

The planned JV will combine Quotient Sciences' Translational Pharmaceutics platform with CPI's expertise in small scale manufacture of RNA and LNP encapsulation to deliver a first-of-its-kind, integrated offering for the development of mRNA drug products. It aims to address the growing industry demand for agile solutions that bring new RNA therapeutics to patients with greater speed and confidence.

The JV will integrate mRNA synthesis, LNP formulation development, clinical manufacturing, and early-phase clinical testing, all under one collaborative framework. The ability to quickly transition from DNA to RNA and into clinical trials is intended to not only shorten timelines but also greatly increase the chances of clinical success, by affording drug developers the ability to adjust dose and formulation parameters based real-time clinical data from healthy human volunteers, the partners said.

Translational Pharmaceutics has been used globally by biotech and large pharma on over 500 programmes with small molecule and peptide drug candidates. This JV extends the application of Translational Pharmaceutics into mRNA-based therapeutics.

Details of the joint venture including name, branding, and operational roadmap will be announced as the collaboration progresses.