Wacker has launched Contract Research Services (CRS) to support biotech and biopharma companies developing nucleic acid-based medicines. The offering sits alongside the contract development and manufacturing services of Wacker Biotech, which operates GMP facilities in Halle and Jena (Germany), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and San Diego (United States). CRS is delivered by a dedicated team of scientists at the WACKER Biotechnology Center in Munich, providing R&D-grade production of small quantities of plasmid DNA, RNA, and lipid nanoparticles for preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies, with a defined route to later GMP scale-up.
Beyond production, the CRS group provides construct design services, including plasmid and RNA construct design, RNA engineering and optimization via external partners, lipid library screening, LNP formulation, functional assays, and analytical services. By linking early-stage R&D activities with Wacker Biotech’s GMP network, the company aims to reduce supply-chain fragmentation and support a more continuous path from construct design to clinical material. The team behind CRS previously developed the PLASMITEC platform and E. coli strain for plasmid DNA production and has participated in more than 100 collaborations with academic and consortia partners, including work on mRNA, circular RNA, and self-amplifying RNA.
Early adopters include SRTD Biotech GmbH, which is developing selectively expressed RNAs (seRNAs) and fusogenic LNPs for organ-specific targeting. According to SRTD, starting at small scale makes access to R&D-grade nucleic acid and LNP materials a key requirement, and the CRS offering provides external expertise and capacity to support its preclinical programs.