“Pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies need to bring the cutting-edge benefits of biotech drugs to patients as quickly, safely and at the lowest cost possible,” said CTI's president and CEO, James Bianco.
A key problem with 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.
According to CTI, Aequus BioPharma will utilize the Genetic Polymer technology to extend the plasma half-life of therapeutic proteins and provide a potentially less expensive, streamlined development pathway for next generation biologics like Neulasta or Aranesp.
CTI also believes the recombinant technology might be utilized to develop novel biologics and also deliver small inhibitors of RNA (siRNA), to their cellular targets in a wide array of malignant, inflammatory, or infectious diseases.
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.