The invention of recombinant technology in the 1970s led to a revolutionary technical breakthrough and the birth of the biotechnology industry. The successful development of EPO, G-CSF and growth hormone as the first generation of blockbuster protein drugs by Amgen and Genentech in the 1980s represented a new era of developing therapeutic biologics as powerful weapons for combatting diseases. In less than two decades, the biotechnology industry has discovered a significant number of human proteins with important physiological functions and developed these natural human protein molecules into protein drugs for treating viral diseases, anemia, and cancer. However, certain unsatisfactory functional features of the natural protein-based drugs were quickly identified. The pursuit of improving therapeutic features through structural modification of natural proteins became a hot research area and led to the development of Aranesp as the second generation of protein drugs. Engineering better therapeutic proteins with either better potency or longer blood half-life has emerged as an attractive direction for the development of protein drugs.
At the beginning of the 21st century, since the founding of Genova, we have aimed to build and grow Genova through the innovation of novel therapeutic protein molecules with one of two features: greatly enhanced functional potency or prolonged blood half-life. Our research efforts mainly focus on the development of better protein drugs for viral infections, cancer and autoimmune diseases. For engineering novel proteins, we have established two proprietary technical platforms for engineering either high-potency proteins or proteins with prolonged blood half-life. Novaferon was the first patented novel protein that was invented with our proprietary technical platform for engineering high-potency proteins. Novaferon is a non-naturally existing protein that exhibits broad-spectrum antiviral and anti-proliferation activities and possesses strong immunomodulating properties. With our proprietary technical platform for engineering proteins with prolonged blood half-life, we have successfully invented two additional patented novel protein molecules, Nova-EPO and Nova-GM-CSF, which both exhibit significantly longer blood half-life.
For over 20 years, we have been dedicated to the development of new drugs and have established comprehensive operations that range from innovation of protein drugs in the laboratory to large-scale drug production and marketing in North America and Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, Beijing and Qingdao). Novaferon has been approved for hepatitis B treatment and is being developed as an effective antiviral drug for the treatment of COVID-19. We are working hard and hope to make a positive contribution to global health through the use of Novaferon in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Longbin Liu
