Polypure have been at the forefront of developments in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years, being a driving force for high-quality PEG’s and PEG-derivatives. Chloe Euripides of the International Biopharmaceutical Industry Journal sits down with CEO Erik Agner to hear about all things Polypure, from successes and key milestones to what we should expect to see from Polypure in the coming years.
The Pharmaceutical Industry is Undergoing Rapid Changes in Drug Delivery Systems, Biotechnology Developments, and Regulatory Frameworks. Where Do You See Polypure in this Landscape and How Can Polypure Capitalise on These Changes?
For 25 years Polypure has focused on high-quality monodisperse PEG’s and PEG-derivatives. It is well known that PEG can increase the solubility and stability of drugs before and after administration. Monodisperse and well-characterised PEG’s lead to higher reproducibility in production and dramatically reduce batch-to-batch variations. It also leads to more predictable and better understanding of behavior in therapeutic applications, and ultimately more efficient drugs and drug delivery systems. At the same time, there are many new developments in drug formulation and delivery systems where highly characterised and purified monodisperse compounds based on PEG have distinct advantages. It is a win-win situation for Polypure as manufacturer and for pharma companies, therefore, I regard Polypure as well positioned to take part in future value creation in pharmaceutical development.
What Kind of Legacy Do You Hope to Leave as the CEO of Polypure? How Do You Envision the Company’s Role in Improving Global Healthcare in the Long Term?
Our main focus is quality and purity; we will never compromise on that. Research is the backbone of Polypure and we are committed to exploration and innovation. There are almost endless possibilities when it comes to making new molecules, and we enjoy working on the research frontier. The real challenge is how to identify and focus on the most relevant compounds; those that can be of real interest and useful to the pharmaceutical industry because of their innate properties. Polypure is not a drug development company, so we need to interact with pharmaceutical companies and CDMO’s etc. to learn and understand needs and trends in the industry. A successful strategy so far has been to develop a library of compounds that we believe can be useful, and to test their interest in the marketplace by offering them small-scale through our catalogue.
