London-listed N4 Pharma (AIM:N4P)  has filed a new UK patent application around Nuvec®, its delivery system for cancer treatments and vaccines. 

The pharmaceutical company said it will apply to Nuvec®’s use in manufacturing viral vectors and in making them more efficient in applications such as ex-vivo gene therapy treatments. 

Nuvec®'s has been shown to be capable of loading multiple plasmids, the amount typically required for the manufacture of viral vectors. 

N4 said recent research demonstrated that loading Nuvec® with the three plasmids typically used to produce lentivirus had resulted in an increase in the amount of desired viral vector. 

An important use of viral vectors is in ex-vivo gene therapy where a patient’s cells are taken from their body and are multiplied in the laboratory to then be re-inserted back into the body. 

Shares in N4 Pharma were trading 19.42% higher to 6.15p during early morning trading. 

Meanwhile, in separate research, the group has demonstrated that Nuvec® can be used as a reagent to produce cells containing the gene using a fraction of the original lentivirus 

The group said that utilising Nuvec®'s ability to load and deliver multiple plasmids as well as using it as a reagent could reduce the costs involved in the existing processes. 

“The global viral vector manufacturing market was valued at $273 million in 2017 and is expected to grow to $816 million by 2023,” highlighted Nigel Theobald, CEO of N4P. 

He added that sales of transduction reagents were estimated to be $68m in 2017 and this is expected to grow to $123m by 2024. 

The company said it is now working with external consultants to identify how best to enter the virus manufacture and ex-vivo gene therapy markets. 

"These are significant markets for in-vitro applications of Nuvec® and will allow us to look at additional commercial opportunities whilst we continue to develop our in-vivo data package for licensing Nuvec® as a delivery system for cancer treatments and vaccines,” said Theobald. 

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N4 Pharma is also included in the Vox Covid-19 Crusaders index.