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Technology Overview
Proteins are large molecules with important functional roles
that represent a growing class of therapeutics. Unmodified proteins
generally possess short circulating times that necessitate their
frequent administration, often by injection, to achieve therapeutic
efficacy. However, certain modifications of proteins that can
be appended to their surface have achieved, and hold forth continued
promise, of producing superior drugs. A natural protein is not
easily modified at specific spots along its large surface by
chemical means. The normal course of chemical modification of
proteins is to produce mixtures. It is difficult, impractical,
and not cost- effective to purify individual components from
such mixtures. This situation places a limitation on the ability
to augment or improve therapeutic properties of a protein.
This approach affords the opportunity of improving existing
suboptimal drugs with established markets and needy patient populations,
and avoiding the costly and long research and development times
required to create or discover new drugs. In essence our approach
is to stitch known efficacy-enhancing entities, to clinically
useful sites of a protein target that can be rapidly screened
for clinical utility and potential.
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