American Peptide Company, a leading innovator in peptide manufacturing and peptide-based services, announced the formation of a new research and development group. Created to offer more robust technology capabilities to a growing roster of global pharmaceutical and biotech customers, the R&D group will be based at the company’s Sunnyvale, California facility and will be tasked with the development of innovative new products and services.

Peptide drugs are rapidly increasing in complexity, now requiring challenging modifications, incorporating unnatural amino acids, and being linked to carrier molecules to enhance drug delivery efficacy. Designed for indications to treat ailments such as diabetes, HIV, neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer, peptides have tremendous therapeutic potential, but can be difficult to synthesize to the high quality necessary for research and commercial production. American Peptide Company has instituted the R&D group to help meet this industry need and provide peptide solutions to the drug development community.

For example, the R&D group has been instrumental in the development of the company’s glycosylation technology. This technology is used to attach oligosaccharides to bioactive peptides or proteins and significantly enhances their therapeutic properties, increasing stability and solubility, reducing antigenicity (immunogenicity) and better controlling internal clearance.

Likewise, the company’s PEGylation technology, whereby a peptide is modified by attaching poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG), can significantly improve drug performance. The benefits of PEGylation include mitigated immunogenicity, avoiding reticuloendothelial (RES) clearance, reduction of renal filtration, and increased half-life in vivo.

“The new R&D group will better enable American Peptide Company to meet the complex and evolving needs of our global customer base,” said Takahiro Ogata, president & COO of American Peptide Company. “This initiative fits well with our broader company mission to provide Total Peptide Management solutions to drug researchers and developers pioneering solutions for improving human life. The R&D group and the technological capabilities they offer will ultimately help our customers more effectively drive bioactive peptides identified as potential drug targets through the discovery and development phase.”

The R&D group also helps drive American Peptide Company’s focus on manufacturing complex peptides. Monosaccharide, disaccharide, and polysaccharide peptide conjugations, multiple disulfide bridges, phosphorylated and biotinylated structures, are among the specialized capabilities the company offers.

American Peptide Company is a leading manufacturer of peptides and peptide conjugates.