St Petersburg University chemists to develop a new medicine for the treatment of eye diseases
Scientists from St Petersburg University have presented a new pharmacologically active compound at the Fair of Product Developments for Medicine and Healthcare. This medicine will help prevent abnormal growth of blood vessels in the eye, which can be linked to age-related vision loss and the spread of cancerous tumours. The medicine is administered through injection into the vitreous body.
The development of peptide conjugates and polyaminoacids that bind vascular endothelial growth factor is supported by a grant from the Government of the Russian Federation and carried out in the Laboratory of Biohybrid Technologies at St Petersburg University.
Viktor Korzhikov-Vlakh, Head of the Laboratory of Biomaterials and Associate Professor at St Petersburg University, spoke about the University medical development. ‘The initial experiments show that the conjugates we have proposed have a longer-lasting effect compared to their analogues (antibodies) without losing specificity. The medicine also has lower production costs compared to existing analogues, the main one of which is the antibodies binding vascular growth factor, such as bevacizumab’, Viktor Korzhikov-Vlakh explained.
‘It was a very useful event for establishing contacts with people who are involved in technology transfer from fundamental science to the industrial field. We spoke with representatives of the biotech company BIOCAD and the scientific and technological pharmaceutical company Polysan, who were interested not only in the presented development, but also in our other capabilities. Contacts were also established with the Scientific Centre for Expert Evaluation of Medicinal Products, and ESMAR, the company engaged in clinical research’, Viktor Korzhikov-Vlakh said.
The Fair of Product Developments for Medicine and Healthcare has been held for the first time. This is a unique industry event aimed at cooperation between developers and manufacturers, which makes it possible to identify the potential for commercialisation of the obtained medicine and medical devices. Within the programme of the event, more than 350 developments in the field of medicine from leading scientific centres of Russia were presented. Thirty nine participants were admitted to presentations in the form of an in-person report.
‘It is important to note that among the organisations that presented their development in person at the fair, only St Petersburg University is not a medical educational institution. Our development has shown that promising inventions can also be born within the walls of a non-narrow-profile university’, Viktor Korzhikov-Vlakh concluded.