Published on
Monday, July 27, 2009
As a method for extending half-life of protein therapeutics,
traditional chemical pegylation is an effective but blunt instrument that adds
time and cost to manufacturing, and produces formulations likely to be covered
by IP protecting the original protein. Versartis Inc., a 50-50 JV between Index
Ventures and Amunix Inc., says drug candidates made by Amunix's recombinant XTEN
technology are patentable molecules that do not require additional manufacturing
steps and can be fine-tuned for desired half-life.
The company has rights to three
preclinical candidates from Amunix: VRS-317 (hGH-XTEN) to treat growth hormone
deficiency, VRS-826 (IL-1ra-XTEN) to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and
VRS-859 (exenatide-XTEN) to treat diabetes. Versartis has an option to three
more compounds.