A long-acting erythropoietin fused with noncytolytic human Fc for the treatment of anemia.

The Fc fusion technology has been introduced to generate long-acting antagonistic drugs such as Enbrel, Orencia and Amevive. Here, Genexine created a novel noncytolytic hybrid Fc (hyFc) as a carrier of agonistic protein drugs using naturally existing IgD and IgG4 Fcs without any mutation in the hyFc region. The erythropoietin (EPO) fused with hyFc exhibited little binding activity to FcγR and C1q molecules that are main mediators for death of target cells. The EPO-hyFc showed higher in vitro and in vivo bioactivities than EPOIgG1 Fc and highly glycosylated EPO (Aranesp). Phase I clinical trial with EPO-hyFc is currently undergoing in Korea.