A novel self-assembly process, developed at WestCHEM was shown to provide a step-change for stabilising proteins as dry powders.

The spin-out company, XstalBio, was created in 2004 and licensed the patented technology with the aim of developing it for delivery and formulation of therapeutic biomolecules and vaccines. Over the period 2008-2012, eight leading international pharmaceutical and animal health companies paid XstalBio over £2.2M for access to its IP portfolio and to undertake evaluation studies with candidate biomedicines and vaccines.

XstalBio employed eight highly skilled research scientists over this period and four further patent families were generated. Boehringer Ingelheim licensed the technology for application to its therapeutic biomolecules and in collaboration with XstalBio built a dedicated €5M pilot plant for manufacture of inhalable dry powders.


First published: 17 December 2013