Peptide Chemistry

We provide custom peptide synthesis and drug discovery services for both industry and academia using state-of-the-art methods. Red Glead Discovery (RGD) has been a trusted partner in peptide synthesis services from small biotech and academic groups to Big Pharma for the last 10 years.

Why choose us

Our peptide team consists of highly experienced and qualified peptide scientists with education and experience spanning several countries. At RGD, we engage in dialogue with each customer to understand their requirements. We also offer our scientific input and suggestions based on our expertise in peptide chemistry providing added value for the customer. We are ready to take on whatever challenges might arise throughout the project and strive to come up with a smart and innovative solutions.

With state-of-the-art equipment and a highly skilled team, we provide quality peptides in reasonable timelines, supporting our clients all the way from early drug discovery to pharmaceutical development.

With more than 10 years of experience in handling both custom synthesis and drug development projects, we stand as one of the leading peptide synthesis service providers in the Scandinavian region.

 

Peptide Impurities: Identification, Separation, and Custom Synthesis

Our expertise lies in the precise identification, separation, and preparative isolation of peptide impurities. Additionally, we specialize in custom synthesis of complex peptide impurities for analogues and key products in the market, including:

 

  • Tirzepatide
  • Semaglutide
  • Liraglutide
  • Desmopressin
  • Vasopressin
  • Degarelix

Our Chemical Analysis & Separation services ensure the highest quality standards.

Integrated Drug discovery

At RGD, we can execute a wide range of drug discovery programs exploiting our capabilities in key areas of pre-clinical research including peptides, small molecules, ADME, In vitro biology, NMR, and computational chemistry.

The peptide team at RGD, exploits a synthetic technology integrating automated peptide synthesizers and microwave technology with the latest chemistry tools allowing us to produce difficult sequences. We can provide a variety of peptide molecules ranging from cyclic and bicyclic peptides to proteins with different post translational modifications and labelled peptides.Together with our other functions we create a full pre-clinical project package in peptide drug discovery. Using our synthetic resources, we also design and synthesize fully customized amino acid derivates for further incorporation. With knowledge from both peptide and small molecule chemistry, we are easily able to transfer a peptide hit into a small molecule project. We regularly synthesize peptides as tool compounds for our in vitro assay development.

This diversity in chemistry and different in-house modalities can support customer needs to accelerate their integrated drug discovery programs and deliver high-quality candidates to enter the clinic.

Case 1

In a drug discovery project from a biotech company, we were first introduced to an active peptide of 43 amino acids retaining the activity of the full-length protein. The client is now prepared to enter clinical trials with a highly modified, 9 amino acid long peptide with improved properties and activity like the full-length protein. A result derived from a systematic optimization process performed by us in close collaboration with the client. We foresee that this achievement will be of great value in the pharmaceutical development and commercialization of the drug.

Case 2

In one client project, we were asked to synthesize a peptide with a selectively oxidized sulphur atom (sulfoxide in a disulfide bridge). The goal was achieved by testing various oxidizing agents in a controlled manner combined with 2D NMR of isolated LC fractions by our NMR experts revealing the peptide with the desired oxidation. With that knowledge, the synthetic route for that specific impurity was rapidly and successfully optimized. This is one example of how our different skills are integrated into several of our pharmaceutical development support projects. We regularly synthesize non-standard and complex amino acid derivatives and use our NMR team to verify the structures of such molecules and building blocks.

Our Approach

Peptides represent a unique class of molecules positioned between small molecules and biologics. This unique nature of peptides enables them to target protein-protein interactions which are not accessible for small molecules or biologics.

We use Fmoc-based fully automated peptide synthesis techniques and take advantage of the latest developments in the field. Our team has a wide expertise in both solution and solid phase peptide synthesis. We perform several peptide chemistry modifications including macrocyclization, bicyclic peptides, Click chemistry, mixed disulphide bridges, ring closing metathesis, lactamization and reductive amination.  We are also experienced in performing native chemical ligation and conjugation of peptides with PEGs, lipids, fluorescent dyes, biotin, and other conjugates.

The analytical instrumentation capability facilitates the purification of peptides with up to gram scale using RP-HPLC and biotage flash chromatography. We have several C18, C8 and C4 columns for different lengths of peptides and proteins.

We have experience in counter ion exchange of the final peptides, the most common being trifluoroacatete, hydrochloride and acetate.

Equipment

We have the following Instruments:

  • Automated peptide synthesizers
    Syro-II parallel peptide synthesizer
    Biotage-Alstra Initator+ Microwave peptide synthesizers
    Activo P-11peptide synthesizer
  • Preparative HPLC (Agilent & Gilson)
    Agilent analytical HPLC
  • Agilent LC-MS
  • FTIR Spectrometer
  • UV Spectrometer
  • Biotage Select automated flash system