Copenhagen, Denmark-based Albumedix announced CSL as a customer this week, explaining that its albumin-based Veltis technology will be used to ensure that Australia-listed drug firm’s recombinant Factor XI product circulates in the blood streams of haemophiliacs for longer.
The Veltis technology – which was previously known as Recombumin Flex – consists of modified albumin molecules that extend the half-life of therapeutic proteins. The platform was highlighted as a core part of Albumedix’s offering when the firm launched in January.
GSK’s Type-2 diabetes drug Eperzan (albiglutide) – which is known as Tanzeum in the US - is the only currently approved product that employs Veltis.
CSL's Idelvion was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this month as a replacement for the clot inducing protein Factor IX that is missing or defective in people with Hemophilia B.
The US regulator highlighted Idelvion’s long half-life as a key attribute, stating that it “is produced by recombinant DNA technology linking Factor IX to albumin, a protein found in blood, which accounts for the product lasting longer when given intravenously.”
The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recently recommended that Idelvion be approved.
Biobetters pipeline
The Veltis technology – and others added since Albumedix launched – will be applied to drugs Albumedix is developing in-house according to CEO Peter Rosholm.
Rosholm told us in January that: “Albumedix’s strategy is to develop a small pipeline of drugs that uses our technologies to maximise return on our investment.”
He did not disclose any specific targets but did say the products are likely to be biobetters.
Biobetters are tweaked versions of existing biopharmaceuticals that improve on the original by having, for example, longer half-lives that allow for reduced dosing.