Novel Fusion Protein

Background

Transplant patients often need to take immunosuppressant drugs for many years after they receive a new organ and some continue to take them all their lives.

Problem

Not only is this costly and inconvenient for the patient, it also puts them at higher risk of contracting a secondary infection because their immune system is down regulated.

Solution

A novel fusion protein has been designed which mimics the body's own ability to evade the immune system in order to develop therapeutics for transplantation immunology and many other areas where drug resistance becomes a problem.

Market Potential

The market size of immunosuppressants is approximately $900 million per year worldwide and there are no other commercially available therapeutic molecules capable of inducing long term tolerance to a donor allogeneic graft in a recipient. This new molecule used as an alternative could result in a NHS cost saving of approximately £1,170 million in the field of renal transplantation alone over the average life expectancy of the organ (i.e. 7.5 years).

This product is currently available to license from NHSIL.