More About Albumin Fusion

Albumin fusion technology is key to overcoming the short half-lives and complex manufacturing processes of protein and peptide therapeutics. The technology utilizes Human Serum Albumin (HSA), which is the most prevalent, naturally occurring blood protein and has a half-life in the human body of more than two weeks. The safety of albumin itself has also been long established—it is frequently used as a stabilizing agent in pharmaceutical production.

To create a longer-acting, improved medicine, the peptide or protein pharmaceutical and HSA are connected at the DNA level using recombinant DNA technology, resulting in the expression of a single recombinant polypeptide. Candidate polypeptides can be fused at either the N- or C-terminus of HSA, or both. Most albumin fusion proteins can be manufactured in yeast at commercial scale using an economically favorable process. Traditional mammalian production systems can also be used for manufacture.