CSL Behring licenses Novozymes' albufuse

Danish biosolutions provider Novozymes has signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for its propriety albumin fusion technology, albufuse, with Australia's CSL Behring. According to the firm, albufuse has been proven to extend the circulatory half-life of therapeutic proteins through genetic fusion to recombinant human albumin. The license will enable CSL Behring to use the technology for R&D and commercialization of novel biotherapeutics.

Extending the half-life of a wide range of therapeutically-relevant proteins leads to increased bioavailability and therefore less frequent administration. Novozymes noted that a combined expression and production process eliminates the need for additional post-production chemical derivatization, such as PEGylation, making albufuse the natural choice for protein half-life extension. Preclinical studies have demonstrated the platform's efficacy with a number of therapeutically-relevant proteins, the firm added.