Why haven’t more biotech companies leveraged the power of protein PEGylation?
Abuchowski: As most scientists will tell you, there is a substantial amount of art — not just technical prowess — when it comes to optimizing scientific methods. While many of the numerous PEGylation chemistries out there are straightforward and easy to use, the key to creating a successful PEGylated product is choosing the best chemistry and the right-sized PEG that will impart the desired biological characteristics on a product. At present, there are numerous PEGylation chemistries and multiple different molecular species of PEGs that can be used to PEGylate proteins. The learning curve is steep for protein PEGylation, and unless somebody on your development team has prior experience with it, PEGylation can be a real hit-or-miss exercise. In my opinion, many companies that try to PEGylate proteins spend too much time studying PEGylation chemistry and not enough time thinking about ways to optimize the PEGylation process for scale-up and manufacturing purposes. The days of charging 10
