Novozymes to Supply Recombumin for Type 2 Diabetes Drug

Novozymes to Supply Recombumin for Type 2 Diabetes Drug

Novozymes Biopharma, part of Novozymes A/S, recently announced it has concluded an exclusive supply agreement with ConjuChem LLC of Los Angeles, CA. Novozymes will supply its recombinant human albumin, Recombumin, for use in the development of a new GLP-1 analog in Phase II testing for type 2 diabetes. The use of Recombumin in the development of the product potentially significantly reduces dosing frequency, allowing patients to self-inject once per week instead of once or twice daily.

“This supply agreement is a great example of using Novozymes’ Recombumin as a vehicle for extending the half-life of peptides in drug delivery applications,” said Thomas Videbæk, Executive Vice President of Novozymes’ BioBusiness. “Also the agreement for this new drug will potentially pave the way for the use of Recombumin in other peptide-based therapies.”

Recombumin is the only commercially available, animal-free recombinant human albumin approved for use in human therapeutics. Manufactured to cGMP quality standards in large-scale facilities, the product is compliant with US Pharmacopeia (USP) National Formulary (NF) standards and is supported by a strongly documented safety package and drug master file. These features greatly improve regulatory approval processes for therapeutics, thus accelerating the time to market. In addition, Recombumin offers a secure supply and batch-to-batch consistency, which reduces processing and testing times to drive product efficiencies for manufacturers.

“This exclusive agreement is an excellent partnership for Conjuchem,” added Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, CEO at ConjuChem. “The Recombumin technology and the strong commitment from Novozymes will be key as we develop next-generation treatment for a disease affecting more than 360 million people worldwide.”

Novozymes is a world leader in bioinnovation, and together with customers across a broad array of industries, it creates tomorrow’s industrial biosolutions, improving customers’ business and the use of the planet’s resources. With over 700 products used in 130 countries, Novozymes’ bioinnovations improve industrial performance and safeguard the world’s resources by offering superior and sustainable solutions for tomorrow’s ever-changing marketplace.

ConjuChem creates novel, next-generation medicines using unique, long-acting therapeutic peptides. Underlying all ConjuChem compounds are bioconjugation platforms called Drug Affinity Complex (DAC) and Preformed Conjugate-Drug Affinity Complex (PC-DAC). When applied to a given peptide, DAC and PC-DAC can create new drugs with similar therapeutic activities but with significantly longer durations of activity and improved safety profiles.