York-based Aptamer Group has announced two contracts worth up to £235,000 to develop its Optimer Binders.

The binders are used as an alternative to anti-bodies and lead to new forms of treatment.

The first contract, worth up to £175,000 is with a top five pharmaceutical company.

The second contract, valued at up to £60,000, is with a global provider of specialty enzymes used widely throughout the life sciences sector, in a $9.9bn market, growing at 8.6% CAGR.

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Aptamer will develop Optimer binders as part of the global company’s testing kits, which could lead to rotalty payments for the firm, with sales starting as early as 2025.

Dr Arron Tolley, Chief Technical Officer of Aptamer Group, said: “The repeat business from another of our top-five pharma partners, validates the power of the Optimer platform to solve intractable problems associated with traditional ligands like antibodies in the area of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and supports our new business and patenting strategy.

“These smaller royalty bearing agreements to develop Optimer binders aligns with our business model to develop a diversified pipeline of technologies to deliver licence agreements across the life science sector. Unfortunately, due to confidentiality we cannot disclose the name of the partner or any other terms of the deal.”

Dr Tolley added: “Over the past year, the new management team has successfully rebuilt the sales pipeline, and refocused the business to its pre-IPO model which continues to convert to signed deals – with opportunities to generate passive income through licensing and royalty-based deals.

“ I look forward to updating the market on continuing commercial progress and on the continued development of our key assets in delivery vehicles for the Liver Fibrosis, binders for cosmetic applications with Unilever and our ongoing partnership with Neuro-Bio developing a diagnostic for Alzheimer’s.”