Pall technology speed production of antisense drug

Pall Corporation has developed a purification technology to help drug manufacturers commercialise a new class of drugs that will revolutionise the way life-threatening diseases are treated.

These potent new pharmaceuticals, called antisense drugs, inhibit the production of faulty proteins responsible for causing cancer, AIDS-related afflictions and cardiovascular diseases. Pall's Mustang chromatography, a breakthrough processing technology, speeds production by quickly removing high levels of impurities during antisense drug processing. Currently over 20 antisense drugs are in clinical trials, and the use of traditional purification methods will cause significant bottlenecks during full-scale manufacturing.

Pall's membrane based Mustang chromatography provides a tenfold increase in antisense drug production speeds compared with standard column chromatography, the current purification technology.

As antisense drugs are manufactured, they create a number of impurities that are difficult to separate because they are closely related molecules. Mustang chromatography's large pore size and configuration enable it to separate more impurities and achieve purity levels of up to 95% when compared with conventional chromatography columns which typically achieve significantly lower purity levels.

It also improves product purity and eliminates the need for organic solvents. 'The momentum is growing for antisense drugs, but new chromatography technology is needed to handle production volumes once these drugs are commercialised,' says Dr Lajmi. 'Mustang chromatography will play a critical role in making antisense drugs available to the people who need them the most.'

Currently there is one antisense drug on the market, Vitravene from Isis Pharmaceuticals, indicated for AIDS-related retinitis. Three drugs are currently in Phase III clinical trials, one of which, the anti-cancer therapy Genasense from Genta, is in late stage. A significant number of other drugs are in earlier phases of clinical trials.

Antisense drugs

Antisense drugs are synthesised strands of DNA known as oligonucleotides that have been chemically modified to prevent the production of disease-causing proteins in the body. When they bind to messenger RNA (mRNA) they turn off the code sequence required to generate these proteins, thereby preventing diseases from manifesting. Antisense drugs minimise patient side effects because they are highly targeted therapies.