Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, and Symphogen, an affiliate of and the antibody centre of excellence within the international pharmaceutical company, Servier, announce the extension of a strategic collaboration to deliver industry-proven, innovative characterization and quality control workflows for the simplified analysis of complex therapeutic proteins to advance biopharmaceutical discovery and development.

Since the collaboration was established in 2018, Symphogen has been utilizing the analytical capabilities of the Thermo Scientific Q Exactive Plus Orbitrap liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) system with BioPharma Option, and most recently the Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris 480 mass spectrometer, to develop, test and routinely implement platform workflows for intact and native mass analysis of therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) mixtures. The high-performance, easy-to-use, analytical workflows were developed to enable dynamic biopharmaceutical companies like Symphogen to deliver novel treatment options for patients.

"Through our collaboration with Symphogen, we can provide the biopharmaceutical industry with proven characterization methods that can be translated into transferable, routine, compliance-ready solutions to boost drug discovery and development," said Eric Grumbach, director, biopharma/pharma, chromatography and mass spectrometry, Thermo Fisher Scientific. "By continuing to invest in this relationship, we demonstrate our commitment to offer solutions designed to tackle today’s most pressing biopharmaceutical challenges."

Dan Bach Kristensen, principal investigator, Symphogen, said, "Over the past two years, the advanced characterization and lead selection studies of several hundred mAb samples enabled by the Q Exactive Plus Orbitrap LC-MS/MS system has allowed us to simplify our analytical strategies, ultimately accelerating our pipeline. Extending our collaboration with Thermo Fisher is a natural way forward to continue driving innovation in the discovery and development of highly differentiated cancer therapeutics."

In addition to the Q Exactive Plus Orbitrap and Exploris 480 LC-MS/MS systems, Symphogen also uses the Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid mass spectrometer. The company’s network of Thermo Fisher mass spectrometry analyzers is completed with Thermo Scientific Vanquish ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) systems and Thermo Scientific Chromeleon Chromatography Data System (CDS) software, which Symphogen has been using for more than a decade.