HESylation - Technology
In comparison to other marketed technologies, HESylation differs significantly:
- Safety
HES is a modified naturally derived polymer that is produced from waxy maize starch. It has been widely used in clinical practice for decades as a plasma volume expander. Consequently, HES has an impressive and well documented safety record.
- Metabolism
HES is known to be metabolised by body enzymes and is thus able to be renally excreted from the body.
- Chemical properties of HES
HES, as a substituted starch polymer, is a poly-disperse molecule by nature. It can be altered by our proprietary technology regarding size, and degree of substitution, branching, poly-dispersity etc. This enables the customizing of pharmacokinetics, onset, duration and level of activity as well as the kinetics of metabolism along with coupling chemistry strategies. Generating a drug molecule with unique properties supported by a strong patent position, is the clear objective.
Fresenius Kabi has developed a broad spectrum of coupling technologies. The following linking strategies were developed and successfully applied to proteins.
- Glyco strategy:
Glycoproteins, preferably N-glycosylated
- Free amino group approach:
- Selective N-terminal coupling
- Statistical lysine coupling
- Cysteine coupling:
Coupling to free cysteine residues
 | Lysine | | Aspartic Acid | | Cysteine |
| | | | | |
| Serine | | Alanine | | Asparagine |
Hence, based on the strong expertise in this field Fresenius Kabi can modulate and tailor the properties of HES as well as the coupling with active drug molecule.