Sugar polymers for better protein drugs

Prolongate

Headquarters

Zürich

Support

Many protein drugs have a short circulatory half-life in the patient and therefore require frequent injections, which are expensive and a great inconvenience. We established a unique technology that prolongs the circulatory half-live of otherwise short-lived protein drugs without having some of the limitations that competitors have.

The technology is based on engineered bacteria able to modify recombinantly expressed protein drugs with a natural sugar polymer. The sugar polymer increases the size of the drug resulting in a reduced elimination via kidney filtration. Furthermore, the polymer has a molecular shielding effect, protecting the drug from other degradation pathways.

Prolongate will apply its proprietary technology to approved protein drugs that lost patent protection and for which no long-acting variants have reached the market yet, such as human growth hormone. In addition, we are planning to apply our technology to develop next-generation antibody fragments for the treatment of chronic inflammatory and ophthalmic diseases.

Furthermore, Prolongate intends to out-license its half-life extension technology to other companies developing proprietary protein drugs. We are convinced that our technology is especially well suited for antibody mimetics, developed by an increasing number of biotech companies.