WACKER is stepping deeper into the fast-moving field of advanced medicines with the launch of new Contract Research Services (CRS) aimed at biotech and biopharma companies worldwide.
The move expands the company’s role beyond manufacturing, adding early-stage R&D support for nucleic acid-based therapies and strengthening its integrated development pipeline.
The new CRS offering is delivered from WACKER’s Biotechnology Center in Munich, where a dedicated team of scientists produces R&D-grade plasmid DNA (pDNA), RNA, and lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies.
These early-stage materials are designed to feed directly into later clinical development, with a seamless transition into Wacker Biotech’s global GMP manufacturing network spanning Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States.
At its core, the initiative is about collapsing the distance between discovery and production. WACKER is now positioning itself as a full-spectrum partner—from construct design and optimization through to scalable GMP manufacturing for clinical supply.
The CRS team supports more than just production. It also offers plasmid and RNA construct design, RNA engineering and optimization through partner technologies, lipid library screening, LNP formulation, and analytical and functional testing.
By integrating these services early in development, WACKER aims to reduce fragmentation across supply chains and shorten timelines for advanced therapy programs.
The company says the approach is especially valuable for early-stage biotech firms that often struggle with the cost and complexity of producing small quantities of drug substance for research.
“Every RNA or LNP project is unique. Our goal is to provide flexible, customizable services that adapt to our clients’ specific needs in a rapidly evolving landscape. Too often, innovative, potentially life-saving therapeutic concepts die on the vine due to the high cost of developing even small amounts of drug substance for R&D studies.
"Our Contract Research Services enable us to serve highly specialized customers – especially small start-ups – with competitive pricing and timelines,” said WACKER Global Program Manager CRS Christian Dubiella.
The company’s expertise is rooted in its proprietary PLASMITEC platform and decades of work with nucleic acid technologies, including collaborations across more than 100 academic and consortium partnerships.
Its scientists have deep experience in RNA modalities such as mRNA, circular RNA, and self-amplifying RNA (saRNA), which are central to many emerging vaccines and therapeutics.
WACKER is already working with early customers, including SRTD Biotech GmbH, which is developing selectively expressed RNA (seRNA) therapies designed for targeted delivery using advanced lipid nanoparticle systems.
“As an emerging biotech company, our development of new therapeutic approaches starts at a small scale. Our platform technology based on seRNAs (selectively expressed RNAs) can easily be adapted to numerous therapeutic areas by utilizing the transcriptome for selective cell targeting and fusogenic LNPs for organ-specific targeting.
"With its vast expertise and resources, WACKER is an ideal partner on the road to realizing our vision of delivering seRNAs to patients to improve their lives. CRS helps us to speed up the path from design to delivery.”
WACKER says the CRS platform will continue to expand, with protein-based research services planned as the next step, further extending its reach across biologics development.
