Wacker Biotech and Eclipsebio Announce Strategic Collaboration to Advance RNA Medicine Development and Production

This partnership incorporates AI-based sequence design with large-scale, regulatory-compliant manufacturing to speed up the timeline from laboratory discovery to scientific trial readiness.

Wacker Biotech, a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) wholly owned by Wacker Chemie AG, and Eclipse Bioinnovations, Inc., the leader in sequencing-driven analytics and AI-allowed design for RNA therapeutics, announced a strategic collaboration. The partnership will further strengthen the companies’ support of RNA therapeutic developers.

This collaboration unites Eclipsebio’s integrated platform of AI-optimized RNA design and sequencing-based validation with Wacker Biotech's large-scale, GMP-compliant manufacturing of nucleic acid-based therapies. Eclipsebio designs RNA for both manufacturability and efficacy, focusing on high yield, integrity, purity, stability, and protein expression, while WACKER’s CDMO supports the entire value chain for RNA-based therapeutic approaches, from plasmid DNA through in vitro transcription (IVT) for GMP-compliant RNA to its formulation in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that meet government standards. The organizations enhance the options for drug developers to produce RNA ready for the clinic.

“We are excited to expand our collaboration with WACKER,” said Peter Chu, PhD, Co-founder and CEO at Eclipsebio. “This partnership allows us to offer innovative access and better support to our partners in every stage of the drug development pipeline, whether they need initial mRNA designs that will produce high yield or are ready for IVT scale-up.”

“We have been working together for a while now, and the new added RNA design services of Eclipsebio are an important feature for early-stage clients, which we are supporting with our newly launched contract research services (CRS),” said Hagen Richter, Head of Global Innovation BioPharma at WACKER. “This collaboration utilizes our complementary strengths to offer clients strong, clinic-ready RNA.”

According to Towards Healthcare, the biotechnology CMO and CDMO market is projected to experience significant growth, with estimates suggesting the market size will increase from USD 82.55 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 220.60 billion by 2035, expand at a CAGR of 11.54% between 2026 and 2035.CMOs offer only production solutions, and CDMOs offer an integrated development and manufacturing solution. Factors like therapeutic and technical expertise, regulatory compliance, scalability, and expenses must be analyzed when choosing the right partner. CMOs and CDMOs meet different industry requirements, but they provide specialized solutions. Outsourcing decisions need strategic insights in efficiency, quality control, and innovation. CDMOs provide integrated advancement and production services. CDMOs assist in streamlining processes, which enables biotech and pharma organizations to not only cut expenses but also enhance their market entry timelines, while adhering to stringent government requirements.

About Eclipsebio

Eclipsebio is a private biotechnology organization headquartered in San Diego that integrates AI-driven sequence design, rapid prototyping, and sequencing-based analytics to support RNA drug advancement. With extensive experience helping early-stage basic research via preclinical therapeutic advancement, Eclipsebio offers unparalleled support for obtaining deep insights into RNA and therapeutic biology. The organization provides its solutions as end-to-end collaboration for biopharma and a project-driven solution for academics.

About Wacker Biotech

Wacker Biotech is a full-service contract manufacturer of recombinant proteins based on microbial technology, live microbial products (LMPs), plasmid DNA (pDNA), and ribonucleic acid (RNA) for therapeutics and vaccines. Wacker Biotech’s portfolio spans from strain/process advancement and analytical testing to GMP manufacturing for clinical and commercial applications. Wacker Biotech operates three GMP-compliant, FDA- and EMA-inspected manufacturing plants at its Jena and Halle sites in Germany and in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Furthermore, Wacker Biotech has a GMP-compliant plant in San Diego which specializes in the manufacturing of pDNA, a significant starting point for RNA therapeutics. Complementing these production sites is a central R&D Biotechnology Center in Munich, Germany, offering Contract Research Services. Wacker Biotech GmbH, Wacker Biotech B.V. and Wacker Biotech US Inc. are wholly owned subsidiaries of Munich-based Wacker Chemie AG.

A recent report by Towards Healthcare highlights that the biotechnology CMO and CDMO market is growing as A CMO supports sponsors in manufacturing their groundbreaking drug substances and drug products. Their services involve commercial production, formulation advancement, analytical method development, stability testing, and manufacturing of registration batches. CMOs supports to reduce costs and speeding timelines by supplying the facilities, technology, and technical capabilities needed to manufacture new therapies, whether small molecules or large molecules, without the requirement for significant upfront capital spending. A CDMO offers integrated drug development and manufacturing solutions and services under one roof. CDMOs combine development expertise with manufacturing capabilities, lowering the requirement to work with multiple vendors and reducing the challenges that inherently come with technology transfers.