Nature Biotechnology has published a comprehensive paper entitled “A recombinant polypeptide extends the in vivo half-life of peptides and proteins in a tunable manner.” The paper describes the design of Amunix’s polypeptide sequence XTEN and presents preclinical data for Versartis’ product candidates VRS-859 as a monthly-dosed treatment for type 2 diabetes and VRS-317 as a monthly-dosed treatment for growth hormone deficiency.

The most advanced XTEN product is Exenatide-XTEN (VRS-859) for type II diabetes, which is being developed by Diartis Pharmaceuticals (www.diartispharma.com) and is in Phase Ia clinical trials.  The second clinical XTEN product is Growth Hormone-XTEN (VRS-317) for growth hormone deficiency, which is being developed by Versartis (www.versartis.com) and is also in Phase I clinical trials.  Both of these products were created by Amunix Inc. using XTEN technology.

Willem P.C. Stemmer has been awarded the prestigious Draper Prize from the National Academy for the development of Directed Evolution, a method used worldwide for engineering novel enzymes and biocatalytic processes for pharmaceutical and chemical products. The $500,000 award, which the Academy calls the ‘Nobel Prize of Engineering’, honors accomplishments that have significantly benefited society. It is shared with Frances Arnold. For a description of the prize and previous winners see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draper_Prize.