The big news earlier this week that only 30,000 genes make up a human has not excited the drug industry nearly as much as the proteins these genes are making.
More Top Picks Best Offset Patio Umbrellas
Protein research is luring huge investments from Chicago’s largest medical companies–Abbott Laboratories and Baxter International Inc.–as they race to develop genetically engineered drugs and diagnostic tests.
Scientists and researchers say such research and development of proteins will be the real key to unlocking the potential of scientific studies from the human genome–the complete genetic sequence of all human DNA.
Active genes, through the proteins they produce, shape everything from individual cells to major organs.
“Now that we have the genome, the lists of genes, we have the lists of all the proteins,” said Dr. Jeffrey Leiden, chief scientific officer and head of drug development at Abbott Laboratories. “The proteins are the doers. They are the receptors, the enzymes and targets for the vast majority of drugs.”
Abbott and Baxter are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on research, development and building facilities to capitalize on genomics research.
Just two months ago, Abbott agreed to spend $6.9 billion on BASF AG’s Knoll Pharmaceutical unit, which has several promising proteins in development at a biotechnology facility in Worcester, Mass.
Abbott has plans for a second biotech facility in the Silicon Valley that will emphasize cardiology research. The Knoll deal’s most promising protein is a so-called monoclonal antibody, or what Leiden calls a “magic bullet,” that attaches itself to disease cells.
But the Knoll deal only adds to an arsenal of proteins Abbott has been stockpiling by way of research and patents for years.
“We already have hundreds of proteins in our diagnostics and therapeutics areas,” Leiden said. “But we have only exploited a small portion of the list.”
Baxter has about a dozen therapeutic proteins in development, but the Deerfield-based medical products giant already has demonstrated the potential of just one successful genetically-engineered product.
Baxter generates more than $500 million in annual sales from a genetically-engineered blood clotting product widely used by hemophilia patients. Known as Recombinate, the drug is developed from a human protein produced in Chinese hamster ovary cells.
“Everyone knew from the beginning that the ultimate answer would not be in the genes, but proteins expressed in those genes,” said Norbert Riedel, president of Baxter’s California-based Hyland Immuno recombinant business.
Baxter has reinvented its portfolio in recent years from rubber gloves and plastic bedpans into critical therapies such as therapeutic proteins. Baxter’s bioscience business is now the company’s fastest-growing enterprise, rising 15 percent to $690 million in sales in the fourth quarter from the same period a year ago.
As Baxter’s bioscience business has gained attention, it has been able to attract notice and talent from industry rivals.
Last fall, Baxter hired Michael Perry for a newly created post heading research and development for therapeutic proteins. Perry came from Novartis AG, where he had run the drug giant’s cell and gene therapy companies.
Smaller companies, too, are trying to carve their own niche in a business in which the cost can be more than $100 million to develop just one therapy.
Making tools for other companies to use in developing drugs is one way small biotech firms can make use of genomic research outside of protein research.
For example, Chicago-based company Integrated Genomics Inc. sells databases on the genetics of bacteria. Using those databases, it is possible for pharmaceutical researchers to find likely ways to target microbes and fight disease.
And Vysis Inc., a Downers Grove biotech company with just 130 employees, uses newly revealed information about genes to develop diagnostic tools for disease.
“A product can cost several million dollars to get to market, but that is still within reach of smaller biotech companies like ours,'” said John Bishop, chief executive of Vysis.
The company already sells products that use DNA information to help physicians determine which patients with breast cancer have a genetic profile that indicates they might benefit from the new drug herceptin.
Health-care analysts say smaller biotech companies have a formidable hurdle to competing in that they must have access to capital.
More Top Picks Best Pipe Wrenches
“Not every health-care company can do recombinant products because the manufacturing process is very intense,” said Sarah Ross, health-care services analyst with Edward Jones in St. Louis. “Every new [manufacturing] suite and facility has got to go through the whole approval process.”
Indeed, it took years for Baxter’s Thousand Oaks plant, where its white powdery Recombinate is made, to pass muster with federal regulators. Last year, Baxter announced plans to invest another $400 million to upgrade and expand biotechnology facilities in Southern California and elsewhere.
Baxter’s newly hired Perry said his new employer “can move quickly and make decisions. This is a fantastic playground to be in right now.”