Drug development and manufacturing accelerator Quotient Sciences has entered a partnership with the UK's Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) to expedite the creation of ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based treatments.

The collaboration, formalised through a memorandum of understanding, will see the establishment of a joint venture (JV) that leverages both entities' strengths to meet the increasing demand for rapid development of RNA therapeutics.

The JV will harness Quotient Sciences' translational pharmaceutics platform alongside CPI's know-how in the small-scale production of RNA and the encapsulation process using lipid nanoparticles (LNP).

This integrated service aims to streamline the journey of mRNA drug products from conception to clinical trials.

By uniting LNP formulation development, mRNA synthesis, clinical manufacturing and early-phase clinical testing within a single cooperative framework, the JV intends to reduce the time it takes to bring new RNA therapies to patients.

The approach is designed to enhance the probability of clinical success by allowing developers of drugs to modify the parameters of dosage and formulation in response to immediate clinical feedback from healthy volunteers.

The collaborative effort is particularly beneficial for drug modalities where the efficacy is closely linked to the delivery mechanism.

Further details regarding the JV, such as its name, branding and operational roadmap, will be disclosed as the partnership advances.

Quotient Sciences CEO Thierry Van Nieuwenhove stated: “The combined innovation and deep technical expertise of Quotient and CPI will enable developers to benefit from a vastly accelerated supply chain, with clinical batches going from plasmid to clinical dose in as little as two months.

“This offers a highly streamlined pathway to early-phase clinical trials for mRNA drug candidates.”

Quotient Sciences noted that the Translational Pharmaceutics platform has been employed in more than 500 programmes involving small molecules and peptide drug candidates by biotech and pharma companies.