Rapid success of first program leads to second collaboration to develop optimized enzyme for large scale manufacturing process Enzyme development expected to enable commercial-scale production of the API in 2025 SUNNYVALE, Calif. , Sept. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Willow Biosciences Inc.
("Willow") (TSX: WLLW) (OTCQB: CANSF ), a leading biotechnology company focused on revolutionizing industrial manufacturing of pure, consistent, and sustainable ingredients, today announced a second program with a leading Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient ( " API") manufacturer, to develop a more sustainable, cost-effective manufacturing route for a large volume ingredient used in a therapeutic with a global market in excess of $1 billion . This marks the second development collaboration for the two parties following the announcement of the first program on January 31, 2024 , where Willow has already successfully achieved certain development goals. Willow's collaboration partner, who currently sells the target API, has now sought Willow's expertise to develop an enzyme to replace an existing complex large scale chemical process.
The development phase of this funded collaboration is expected to last approximately six months with additional milestone payments to be made for achieving defined performance targets, which could be achieved as early as 2025. This API partnership represents Willow's 4 th announced commercial agreement year to date that contains milestone or other commercial payments that.