Priyanka Golikeri

Mumbai: Here’s a ray of hope for diabetes, cancer and hepatitis patients.

Pharmaceutical companies will be able to produce life-saving proteins such as insulin, erythropoietin and interferon at one-eighth their current cost by using a process involving vesicular fusion factor 2 (VFF2) technology.

Erythropoietin or EPO is a protein that causes the formation of red blood cells in leukaemia patients and interferon is a protein used in the treatment of cancer, hepatitis C and multiple sclerosis. Cells of yeast, bacteria and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) have to be engineered to produce EPO, insulin or interferon.

According to Sanjeev Saxena, chairman and CEO of the USbased biotechnology incubator company Actis Biologics, VFF2 can increase the protein-producing capacity of yeast, bacteria and CHO cells by eight times.

“When VFF2 is infused into the cells of yeast, bacteria or CHO and cultured under controlled conditions, it engineers their cell lines to produce proteins eight fold. This means that the cost of the proteins would fall by eight times,” Saxena said.

He added that worldwide sales of EPO are $10-11 billion while those of insulin are $5 billion. “Around 20% of the cost of any protein is its cost of manufacturing. So, to manufacture a particular amount of EPO, it costs $2 billion. By using VFF2, the cost can be brought down to $250 million,” he said.

Even if the cost of packaging and marketing is taken into consideration, the end product would cost at least 50% less than it does now.

“This will increase the affordability of the proteins,” Saxena said. The development would help as many as 41 million diabetics and 10 million cancer patients in India. VFF2 is a patented technology under exclusive licence with Actis Biologics. Californiabased scientists Dr Martin Lattriche and Dr Kendall Powell developed VFF2 in 1999 at Salk Institute and the technology was licensed to Actis in 2005. The company is the only one in the world to have this technology.

Saxena said Actis was open to licensing the process to leading players like Eli Lily, Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson,Amgen and Ranbaxy, among others, after a year.

“We will licence the protein-producing process using VFF2 and not VFF2 technology as such. Another option will be to get into agreements to manufacture the proteins ourselves and then sell it to leading players,” he said.

One thing that will help slash costs further in India is the availability of cheap labour here.

“A senior scientist in India would be paid approximately Rs 8 lakh annually as against Rs 80 lakh in the US. So when applied in India, the labour expenses would also help restrict the costs,” Saxena said.

For the last one year, Actis was testing VFF2 on generic proteins to check its efficacy. It will now test it on specific proteins like EPO and insulin for another six-12 months.

“We are spending about Rs 10 crore for testing VFF2 on generic and specific proteins. In 12 months, we will do deals with pharma companies,” Saxena told DNA Money.

The company will manufacture proteins at a five-acre facility in Khopoli in Maharashtra. The facility, which will be complete in 18 months, will see an investment of $5 million. It will have three 40,000 sq ft plants.

“The plants will have a protein fermentation capacity of 3,000 litres each. As VFF2 will increase the capacity by eight times, the total capacity of each plant will become 24,000 litres. We will produce the proteins here and then sell them to pharma companies,” Saxena said.

Source : DNA