CT creates new firm to develop Genetic Polymer technology

USA-based Cell Therapeutics plans to form a new spin-off company, Aequus BioPharma, to develop its genetic polymer technology to be applied in the accelerated manufacture, development and commercialization of novel biopharmaceuticals including follow-on biologics or so-called biosimilars.

A key pitfall of protein therapeutics is the relatively short plasma life of these types of drugs, which leads to the need for frequent injections and higher associated costs for therapies. Aequus BioPharma will utilize CT's Genetic Polymer technology to provide a potentially less expensive, streamlined development pathway for next generation biologics.

According to CT, the Genetic Polymer technology can be used with multiple molecules, which may eliminate the need to develop individualized technology for extending the plasma half-life of each biopharmaceutical. The technology is a recombinant DNA process that ligates a secretion sequence with a biologically-active protein sequence and a poly-amino acid sequence resulting in a novel, unique and patentable gene. CT believes that expression in traditional mammalian systems will allow for the production of a biologic protein with prolonged plasma half-life, but without the requirement for further chemical modifications subsequent to protein expression.