MIP Discovery rebrands as Tozaro as it completes transition to supporting cell and gene therapy viral vector analytics and purification

• Tozaro’s rationally designed smart polymer affinity reagents offer novel analytics and purification solutions to enhance the development and manufacture of viral vectors in cell and gene therapy
• Rebrand follows Series A funding round in February 2024

Bedfordshire, UK, 06 August 2024: MIP Discovery today announced the Company’s rebrand to Tozaro, completing its transition to becoming a technology innovator in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) bioprocessing sector.

The rebrand comes at a time of significant growth for the Company, following the refocusing of its mission to improve downstream processing within the CGT sector by helping to transform the development and manufacture of viral vectors, alongside its successful £7M Series A funding round in February. The Company’s updated brand identity fully supports this shift in focus, underpinning its commitment to enable innovation within CGT bioprocessing with its smart polymer technology.

Tozaro’s smart polymers are uniquely and rationally designed using computational chemistry to create novel affinity solutions that enable users to extend beyond the boundaries of what is currently possible with biological reagents. As part of the design process, whole viruses are assessed to identify unique surface epitopes for synthetic affinity reagents to bind. A library of over 600 monomers (the building blocks of smart polymers) are screened against the identified epitopes to choose those with optimal characteristics for new smart polymer development. The chemical manufacture process gives control over specific features such as affinity to the virus, allowing fine tuning to specific application requirements in analytics and purification. This, combined with the scalability and safety profile of non-biological affinity reagents, delivers new solutions to those developing essential viral vector purification and analytical tools.

“The promise of cell and gene therapies is being constrained by the high cost in producing treatments using methods that are inefficient and cumbersome. Tozaro’s novel approach to building reagents for viral manufacturing can change this” said Dr.Mike Evans, Chair of the Board, Tozaro. “The rebrand, including a change of name to Tozaro, aligns with our ongoing commitment to growth and focus on developing novel solutions that will enable widespread adoption of next-generation therapies.”

Guy Leaver, Interim CEO, Tozaro said, “We have already seen positive results with our first wave of lentivirus smart polymers designed for both analytics and capture chromatography. We are excited to see this trend continue as we head into the latter part of the year and expand our portfolio under our new identity, Tozaro.”

To learn more about how Tozaro is enabling cell and gene therapy developers, please visit www.tozaro.com