The rise and rise of the BDO (Biologic Development Organisation)

October 7, 2024

The growth in numbers of small and medium sized biologics' development companies has been exciting to watch.Mainly based around cell and gene therapy but also including protein chemistry and artificial intelligence. The latest being the deal between Vertex Pharmaceuticals and TreeFrog worth at least $750 million with initial up-front payment plus milestone payments. This gives Vertex access to TreeFrog’s proprietary technology platform, C-Stem?, which is designed to mimic the natural micro-environment, allowing cells to grow exponentially in 3D. The technology will enhance Vertex’s ability to generate large amounts of fully differentiated cells for it's portfolio of cell therapies.

The French company Treefrog is fairly typical of these companies, Biologics Development Organisations (BDO's) with both their own pipeline of products but also licensing out and giving access to their technology and IP through their 'C-stem' platform. With Biotech investors being more conservative in where they place their capital and also with higher interest rates, start-up companies and small Biologics' companies have had to diversify their business model from just focusing on licensing deals, for pipeline products to also include licensing access to their technology. This access uses the same financial model as licensing products with up-front payments, milestone payments plus success bonuses. Evotec is a good example of a larger company that offers these type of business model with the duality of pipeline development plus drug development services.?Evotec & Variant Bio (VB) have developed a partnership to discover and develop fibrosis treatments.The strategic collaboration leverages VB’s cutting-edge genomic discovery capabilities and VB-Inference platform as well as Evotec’s extensive expertise in antibiotic drug discovery. Evotec will identify best-in-class small molecules targeting a key fibrotic pathway with strong genetic support identified by Variant Bio and progress the programme towards the selection of a clinical development candidate(s) using Evotec’s integrated end-to-end R&D platform.

Will this be something that existing traditional type CDMOs will consider in the future? Creating IP and new technologies and offering access to this through technology platforms. Also possibly developing their own product pipelines with the aim of licensing rather than marketing and distribution. So a mix of drug discovery and drug development services. Large CDMO's may then be in the market to acquire technology (and BDO'S), to add to their drug discovery services, especially in the area of cell and gene therapy.

Many examples of these types of partnerships for drug discovery and innovation purposes can be seen at https://www.pharmaservicesdirectory.com/news or at www.thepartnershptree.com