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Two rooms instead of an entire building

With Science Park Aarhus as the obvious location, the company Denzyme ApS is attempting to transform pure science into saleable products.

By Anne Erichsen, editor of Information & Debat

Denmark's most important raw materials are knowledge and skill. It is therefore important for us to concentrate our efforts on education and research; and the fruits of such research must to a much greater extent than hitherto result in new products and new production techniques.

This point of view is beginning to find favour with a growing number of both politicians and business managers. The practical utilization of research was one of the primary goals that has motivated the establishment of science parks throughout the country, the science park in Aarhus being the first off the mark.

Among many other companies located at the Aarhus Science Park is a small company specializing in biotechnology þ Denzyme ApS, a subsidiary of Cheminova. The company was founded on April 1st, 1993, in the light of research results from the Laboratory of Gene Expression, which is also located in the science park. It is therefore possible for the project manager at the laboratory, Hans Christian Thøgersen, together with his research colleagues Michael Etzerodt and Thor Las Holtet, to participate in the running of Denzyme ApS which, as Hans Christian Thøgersen puts it, has three extremely small shareholders and one rather large one.

In the laboratory the researchers have developed a completely new method which opens the way to a much more effective and cheaper production of proteins using gene technology. A process which has previously required an arsenal of pipes, tubes and containers, can now be carried out using a comparatively small production unit. Or, in the words of Hans Christian Thøgersen, you can make do with two rooms as opposed to an entire building.

The main task for Denzyme, then, is to guide this technology through to its use in industrial production in the biomedical industry.

A grant from the Aarhus University Research Foundation

The actual starting point for the company was a protein project which Hans Christian Thøgersen brought home with him from a trip to England some years ago, but which actually first saw the light of day at Aarhus University in the late 1970s. The project dealt with the function of vitamin K, and more especially with coagulation factor Xa. In 1994 Hans Christian Thøgersen received a large grant from the Aarhus University Research Foundation for basic research into the structure and function of factor Xa protease (proteases are enzymes that hydrolyze proteins).

The main aim of the project is to acquire the knowledge that will make it possible to study variants of factor Xa protease. But at the same time it must create the technological basis needed to produce new, specific proteases for biomedical usage in research, diagnostics, and therapy. "What we're dealing with here, then, is a potential area of development for Denzyme," explains the company's Managing Director, Allan Skov, who is also the Deputy Director of R&D at Cheminova Agro.

It should also be noted that it is now fifty years since the Research Foundation assumed control of Cheminova.

The professional touch

Key concepts at Denzyme are invention, implementation, and further development. But such concepts require capital backing, and this is where Cheminova comes into the picture. Hans Christian Thøgersen explains:

"We needed a business partner who was not only able to finance the further development of our work, but who also had necessary professional business know-how. Acquiring a patent for the method is an expensive procedure, and we also needed to feel that there was light at the end of the tunnel, that our efforts would be realized in practice."

"With Jørgen Andersen, administrative manager at the Research Foundation, as the intermediary, we managed to come to an agreement with Cheminova. In practice this meant the setting up of Denzyme with the CEO at Cheminova Holdings, Arne V. Jensen, as Chairman of the Board, and Allan Skov as Managing Director. We contribute with the method which is to be patented and our scientific know-how; Cheminova provides the capital and the marketing."

New areas of activity

The patent was applied for in February 1993, but obtaining final approval is a protracted affair, so the researchers will have to wait patiently for a little longer to see whether their method is recognized. After having applied for a patent, there is a period of eighteen months in which information is sent out about the method, both at home and abroad. The method is then officially presented and, if no objections have been raised at this point, the patent will be close to being awarded.

"So far things have gone according to plan", explains Allan Skov, who is responsible for the practical side of the patenting process. "It doesn't look as though our patent overlaps with other know-how or patents, but it would be fool-hardy to be too confident until the publicizing phase is completed." As to Cheminova's reasons for entering into a business agreement with the three researchers, he says:

"Generally speaking, we like to be involved in new areas of activity, especially those areas founded upon chemistry and chemical technology. And we are extremely interested in research results achieved at the universities which can lead to industrial processes. This particular method looks as though it can be used in the biotechnology industry, and Denzyme is now in a start-up phase during which experimental work is being used to try to create a basis for various industrial applications of the invention in the biomedical business."

Pilot projects

To justify its existence Denzyme ApS has to develop the best possible methods for the production of proteins, with the goal of manufacturing marketable products.

"I believe that we have a duty not to waste this opportunity. One of the goals of the science park is, after all, that the work done here should lead to spin-offs to industry. Right now the main strategy for the company is to win licences, and in that process I view Denzyme as a type of workshop," says Hans Christian Thøgersen.

Current workshop assignments include those being undertaken by laboratory technician Birgit Andersen, Denzyme's first employee, who is testing the method by producing a whole series of trial samples for various biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies.

"We have contacted those groups we felt might have an interest in the method, and now our main task is to run pilot projects for some of these interested parties," explains Hans Christian Thøgersen.