DSM Venturing, the corporate venturing unit of Royal DSM N V, today announced having participated in an equity investment round in the Danish company Upfront Chromatography A/S, the world''s leading developer of customised industrial protein chromatography processes.

In addition to the investment, DSM and Upfront have signed a collaboration agreement with the aim of further developing the Rhobust technology for the purification of monoclonal antibodies.

DSM Venturing, which is an active investor in emerging companies and venture capital funds in its parents strategic growth fields of nutrition, pharma and performance materials, said in a communiqué, "The downstream processing platform developed by Upfront is of great potential to contribute to all biotechnology-derived products from DSM. DSM is joined in this investment round by financial investors InnovationsKapital and NBGI Ventures."

DSM Venturing says its mission is to explore emerging markets and technologies in these strategic growth fields in order to enhance DSM''s product portfolio and create value. DSM Venturing also plays an active role in the development of several new DSM business opportunities in the so-called emerging business areas biomedical, industrial (white) biotechnology, specialty packaging and personalised nutrition.

DSM Pharmaceutical Products is a global provider of custom manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries with a broad menu of services in protein production and in clinical, commercial and fill and finish areas.

The company''s achievements in biopharmaceutical production have resulted in a significant urgency in attaining breakthroughs in downstream processing, enabling more efficient purification of monoclonal antibodies and other biopharmaceutical proteins.

In addition to the investment, DSM and Upfront have signed a collaboration agreement with the aim of further developing the Rhobust technology for the purification of monoclonal antibodies.

Upfront develops and manufactures innovative products and technologies for extraction and recovery of biotherapeutics, functional biomolecules, macromolecular complexes, and even living cells, directly from bioreactors and industrial side-streams.

For customised separation services, Upfront, which is currently developing the world''s largest chromatography system, offers access to its proprietary Rhobust universal process platform combined with extensive technical and regulatory support. It develops adsorbents, ligand chemistry, columns and other hardware to optimise process performance.

"Upfront is at the forefront of technological breakthroughs in downstream processing," said Leendert Staal, CEO of DSM Pharmaceutical Products. "Through our investment we want to support further developments in the company which will benefit both DSM and Upfront."

With its proprietary technology platform, called Rhobust, Upfront focuses on two major application areas. The first is bioprocess, which offers novel solutions to customers who need to recover and purify monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic proteins and other biomolecules from blood plasma or bioreactors, under cGMP-compliant conditions.

In the second area, biomine, Rhobust enables the isolation of high-value functional proteins and other biomolecules from bioreactors or industrial process side-streams for use as food ingredients, industrial enzymes, nutraceuticals and healthcare products. The areas in which Upfront is active are of interest to various DSM entities that apply fermentation processes.

Upfront develops and manufactures innovative products and technologies for extraction and recovery of biotherapeutics, functional biomolecules, macromolecular complexes, and even living cells, directly from bioreactors and industrial side-streams. For customised separation services, Upfront offers access to its proprietary Rhobust universal process platform combined with extensive technical and regulatory support.