Human Genome Sciences (HGS; Rockville, MD) hopes to re-patent many of the biotechnology industry's most celebrated therapeutic proteins and return them to market under its own banner. It plans to do this by extending their blood circulation half-lives by fusing them with human blood serum albumin using technology it purchased in September. HGS has already filed an Investigational New Drug application with the FDA for its interferon-based hepatitis C treatment albuferon, and at least eleven more are underway. However, apart from the fact that extending half-life is not always advantageous, HGS faces competition from companies offering alternative half-life extension technologies.
HGS bought Principia Pharmaceuticals (Norristown, PA) and its albumin fusion technology using $135 million in stock. The move, which closed Principia's brief tenure of independence since being spun off from Aventis last year, ended a three-year search by HGS for a better way to extend protein half-life. Typical half-lives—lasting minutes to hours—require not only frequent, but also high, doses for therapeutic effect—often so high that initial peak doses cause side effects. Extending half-life of such therapeutics permits lower, less frequent, and therefore potentially safer doses, which are cheaper to produce. “It's clear many if not most human proteins need to be formulated so they last a long time in the human body,” says HGS CEO William Haseltine.
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