Demand for its dbDNA has grown rapidly in the last year, said the UK biotech, driven by its use in mRNA, lentivirus, gene editing, DNA vaccines, AAV, and other applications.
Touchlight claims its ‘doggybone’ or dbDNA synthetic vector, and its enzymatic production, enable it to make DNA at the speed, scale and purity necessary to support the rapid growth of genetic medicines.
And the company believes its synthetic DNA vector is superior to traditional plasmid DNA.
“The enzymatic manufacturing process for dbDNA offers multiple advantages over traditional plasmid DNA (pDNA), which is currently a key component of mRNA vaccines and gene therapies. GMP dbDNA can be produced more rapidly than pDNA (weeks versus months) and is manufactured using benchtop equipment with a significantly smaller physical and carbon footprint, making it simple and rapid to scale up as well as highly portable and amenable to technology transfer. dbDNA vectors contain no antibiotic resistance genes – a topic of increasing regulatory scrutiny.”
Manufacturing capacity expansion
Bridford and Novator will support the company through investments in additional manufacturing capacity, R&D, and growth initiatives, and by leveraging their healthcare expertise.
The UK biotech is primarily extending its existing capacity in Hampton, UK, where it will add 11 new state-of-the-art DNA production suites to have a total of 15.
A spokesperson for Touchlight told BioPharma-Reporter that the benchtop scale of the technology means the total facility footprint will occupy only a fraction of the space required by conventional bioreactor-based plasmid DNA manufacture.