NEWS OF THE WEEK
NANOTECH DRUG FIRM DEBUTS
RUSN AN O
ALLIANCE: Charitable mission underlies U.K., Russian business
Chubais
C
ELTIC PHARMA Holdings in the U.K. and the
Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano) have launched a new company, Pro Bono Bio (PBB), to focus on nanotechnology-enabled therapeutics. The venture will pursue a tailored marketing strategy combined with philanthropy. The Moscow- and London-based firm is the outgrowth of a three-year-long Anglo-Russian project. Rusnano will invest up to $300 million in PBB—among its biggest investments—and own less than 50%. As part of its business plan, PBB will price products differently in various geographic regions, depending on patients’ abilities to pay. It may also donate drugs to Africa, contingent on its product sales in European markets. Last week in the U.K., PBB launched its first product, Flexiseq. The osteoarthritis therapy uses Sequessomes, or nanoscale phospholipid vesicles, to sequester chemical agents involved in treating inflammation and pain. The gel will be sold in Russia in early 2012 at 50% of the Western European price. PBB plans
UNCLICK CHEMISTRY MECHANOCHEMISTRY: Ultrasound
tugs on triazole to trigger cycloreversion reaction
U
SING ULTRASOUND to mechanically pull
apart a molecule, chemists have found a way to quickly and cleanly undo the most popular of the so-called click reactions (Science, DOI: 10.1126/ science.1207934). The discovery suggests a new synthetic protection strategy for azides and could be used to create smart materials whose structures and properTriazole splits when pulled apart. ties may change in response to mechanical forces. Click chemistry O O uses small, reactive building blocks to N N PMA PMA O O quickly assemble N new compounds. Because of its reliUltrasound Cu catalyst ability, it has been used in the synO O thesis of medicinal compounds, polyPMA + PMA O O N3 mers, and biological probes. One of the PMA = poly(methyl acrylate) WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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to soon launch psoriasis and eczema products. PBB initially will contract with Russian firms for manufacturing but intends eventually to build its own facility near Moscow with Rusnano’s help. A European marketing and distribution center, and additional production capacity, is planned in the U.K. Through its capital arm, Rusnano is a “coinvestor in international nanotechnology projects with significant economic or social potential,” says Rusnano CEO Anatoly Chubais. It attracts resources from global institutional and strategic investors and also assists in tech transfer and acquiring international expertise to advance the projects in Russia. Rusnano has agreed to other matched investments in pharmaceutical projects with Celtic Pharma. The U.K.-Russia matchup is not entirely surprising. As pointed out by the consulting firm Cientifica in a July nanotech report, the U.K. has the academic excellence but not the financial means to take advantage of emerging technologies. Meanwhile, Russia, with large amounts of available cash, ranks among the top countries able to exploit nanotechnology. At a Sept. 12 event organized by Rusnano and U.K. Trade & Investment, British Prime Minister David Cameron called PBB’s launch “a great example of U.K.-Russia collaboration at the cutting edge of R&D. It demonstrates how British businesses can work together with their Russian counterparts to expand into new areas.”—ANN THAYER
most popular click reactions is the copper-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of an azide and an alkyne, which produces a substituted 1,2,3-triazole. The reaction is quick and clean, and the resulting triazole is chemically, thermally, and photochemically stable. Christopher W. Bielawski, Johnathan N. Brantley, and Kelly M. Wiggins of the University of Texas, Austin, found they could reverse this click reaction via mechanochemistry. They tether the triazole between two poly(methyl acrylate) chains and then subject it to ultrasound. As small bubbles created by the ultrasound collapse, the resulting vacuum exerts force on the triazole moiety. This literally breaks the molecule in two via a cycloreversion reaction. Bielawski says he hopes the discovery opens people’s eyes to the power of using mechanical forces to promote chemical reactions. “With mechanical force, you have the option to coax chemical reactions to proceed more selectively and in unique ways,” compared with heat- or light-induced chemical transformations, he says. “One of the most lasting outcomes from this work may in fact be its influence on the way that synthetic chemists make and break covalent bonds,” write University of California, Santa Barbara, chemists Frank A. Leibfarth and Craig J. Hawker in a commentary about the work. “Instead of turning up the heat, mechanical force should be considered as an alternative tool to manipulate molecules,” they note.—BETHANY HALFORD
SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
