The Canadian companies are combining a new drug delivery mechanism and bioproduction platform to enable what they believe will be a more cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable way to mass-produce therapeutic recombinant proteins.

Future Fields' platform, called the EntoEngine, would be used to mass-produce the novel protein now in development. Production would be more cost-effective than conventional approaches to biopharmaceutical production, the firms said.

Using CRISPR, Montreal-based Jenthera Therapeutics has developed an in vivo delivery mechanism for protein-based drugs via intravenous injection, eliminating the use of viruses, lipids, or nanoparticles, which are expensive to produce and require large manufacturing facilities.

Leveraging production with the EntoEngine, Jenthera can deliver tailored gene-editing complexes that selectively target the genomes of cancer cells, delivering in vivo anticancer therapeutics, the firms said.

The direct delivery of the ribonucleoprotein presents the optimal safety profile, they said, adding that in clinically relevant models in vivo, Jenthera's gene-editing complexes have shown high efficacy and tolerance, excellent bio distribution, and safety from off-targets and immunogenicity.

Edmonton, Alberta-based Future Fields is advancing a new biomanufacturing paradigm by harnessing fruit flies. With its biomanufacturing platform, the EntoEngine, the company is focused on making significant strides to increase the supply of recombinant proteins for biological drugs, shrink the cost of research and development, and diminish the carbon footprint of bioreactors. Future Fields said it is engaging with biotech companies to form research collaborations for strategic proteins of interest.