• XL-protein GmbH
  • Lise-Meitner-Str. 30
  • 85354 Freising/Weihenstephan
  • Germany
  • Phone: +49 (0)8161/537 30-90
  • Fax: +49 (0)8161/537 30-99
  • ed.nietorp-lx@ofni

Prof. Arne Skerra, Chairman & Co-Founder;
Claus Schalper, MPA, CEO; Uli Binder, CTO

About XL-protein GmbH

XL-protein develops and commercializes its ground-breaking PASylation® technology, which enables the design of biopharmaceuticals with extended plasma half-life and enhanced action. Based on a strong proprietary technology platform, XL-protein is engaged in a growing number of partnerships with international pharmaceutical and biotech companies at various levels. ‘PASylation’ involves the genetic fusion or chemical conjugation of a therapeutic protein or pharmaceutically active compound with a conformationally disordered polypeptide of defined sequence comprising the small natural amino acids Pro, Ala, and/or Ser. Due to the biophysical size effect, the typically rapid clearance via renal filtration of the original drug can be retarded by a factor 10–100, depending on the length of the PAS chain. PAS
sequences are highly soluble while lacking charges, they are biochemically inert, non-toxic and non-immunogenic, and they show high stability in blood plasma but are biodegradable by intracellular proteases.

What is your motivation?

The short circulation half-life of almost all genuine biopharmaceuticals — except for full size antibodies — poses a strong limitation for the development of efficacious biologics. Not only frequent dosing is a burden for patients, and the large amount of costly active pharmaceutical ingredient is a challenge for public healthcare, but also the quickly fading drug concentration in blood after injection prevents maximal response in organs and tissues. Previous technologies, like PEGylation, alleviate this problem only in part, or they come along with other caveats such as poor biodegradability and accumulation in the body. PASylation, which achieves dramatic half-life extension on the basis of a purely biologic polymer, paves the way to next generation biobetters with durable effect and enhanced action. Our mission is to serve both patient needs and pharmaceutical market requirements by turning promising laboratory candidates with proven mode of action into viable biopharmaceutical drug candidates with tailored pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, thus enabling clinical translation.

“The IZB at Weihenstephan offers a close link to the Life Science Campus of the Technical University of Munich and the vicinity to the Munich Airport facilitates exchange with our world-wide partners. Cordial congratulations from XL-protein!”

Arne Skerra, Chairman & Co-Founder

XL-protein: Improved biopharmaceuticals with extended plasma half-life

XL-protein is a biopharmaceutical company utilizing its proprietary ‘PASylation’ technology to develop second generation biopharmaceuticals with prolonged plasma half-life. PASylation of therapeutic proteins allows less frequent and lower dosing combined with better tolerability, also opening perspectives for the life cycle management of approved biopharmaceuticals.

‘PASylation’ – the genetic fusion with conformationally disordered polypeptide sequences composed of the amino acids Pro, Ala, and Ser – provides a superior way to attach a solvated random chain with large hydrodynamic volume to a biologically active protein. Thus, its typically rapid clearance via kidney filtration can be retarded by one to two orders of magnitude while the PAS moiety is biochemically inert and easily degradable.