Bulking up Fuzeon

For Trimeris Inc. and partner Roche, projecting yields for their Fuzeon HIV compound on a commercial scale has been a challenge, as they've faced the task of producing tons of lengthy peptides via chemical synthesis. As a result, the companies said last week that they will miss their earlier supply projections for 2003, but expect to have an increase in yields in 2004 and 2005 from process improvements. Even with the expanded capacity, it remains to be seen whether they will be able to meet rising demand due to mounting HIV resistance to antiretrovirals.

In an update last week, TRMS (Durham, N.C.) and Roche (SWX:ROCZ, Basel, Switzerland) said their initial commercial scale yields of Fuzeon enfuvirtide (formerly T-20), which is under regulatory review in the U.S. and Europe, are lower and production times longer than they had projected. In an August SEC filing, TRMS said that ROCZ would be able to manufacture sufficient compound to supply about 25,000 patients by the end of 2003...