Strong PKC profile for BAY 79-4980

German drugmaker Bayer AG has presented data from two early-stage clinical trials at the World Federation of Hemophilia, held in Vancouver, Canada, showing promising results and thus supporting the further development for its new experimental factor VIII replacement product, BAY 79-4980.

According to the Leverkusen-headquartered firm, the findings suggest that this new product may offer people with hemophilia A factor VIII deficiency prolonged protection from bleeding with once-weekly infusions. This would be a major benefit over factor VIII products currently available on the market which only stay in the body for about two days and means that sufferers may infuse factor VIII as often as three or four times per week.

The agent is part of a long-term collaboration between Bayer and Zilip Pharma to make a potential breakthrough product that has longer activity than available factor VIII agents. Such a compound could reduce infusion frequency and improve compliance. BAY 79-4980 is a unique combination of recombinant factor VIII with Zilip Pharma's proprietary synthetic polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated liposomes. Bayer noted that, although liposomes have been used successfully as a carrier to enhance the efficacy of other therapeutic agents in humans, the unique binding modality of BAY 79-4980 allows it to retain the full bioavailability and clotting factor properties of factor VIII, while at the same time extending activity.