Ilya Pharma has acquired its long-term partner Nordic Bioanalysis, which it says will help them support the Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) space.

The deal, of which no financial details have been disclosed, sees clinical stage immunotherapy firm Ilya Pharma acquire Nordic Bioanalysis (NBAB), which develops pharmaceuticals and biologics, including antibodies and ATMPs.

“NBAB mainly provide bioanalytical services for pharmaceuticals and medical devices. The advantages to Ilya Pharma are to de-risk our supply chain for CMC and clinical bioanalytics, the de-risking is mainly achieved through the growth strategy of NBAB where the company is already on track with doubling its revenue and team for 2022,” a spokesperson for Ilya told BioProcess Insider.

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As well as supporting the ATMP field more generally, Ilya looks to facilitate development of its ILP pipeline. This includes progressing product advancement of its ILP100 drug candidates, which are now in late-stage development.

ILP100 is a bacterium engineered to express chemokines and other immunomodulatory proteins.

When applied to a wound, ILP100 produces the cytokine CXCL12, which induces a “functional shift in the local immune cells that produce more TGF-beta and this accelerates the haling and reduces scaring” according to the firm.

Under the terms of the deal, NBAB will continue to run at arm’s length as an independent commercial entity. And Ilya says its goal is to increase its customer base, which ranges from start-ups to big pharma.

Additionally, NBAB is located at Astra Zeneca’s previous site in Södertälje, south of Stockholm, but Ilya said “the GMP manufacturing and manufacturing space is not directly related to the acquisition.”

“The NBAB team have made significant contributions to the success of our developments and really stand out compared to some of the more established service providers in the field. We would like to see our own projects be successful as well as contribute to the field by facilitating other new modalities of advanced therapies to be tested for proof of concept in clinical trials win a wide range of indications where there is still a substantial unmet need for patients, not yet solved by traditional therapies,” the spokesperson said.

The transaction is now closed.