VEN200: Optibumin

VEN200 (Optibumin) is recombinant human albumin and is in development as a reliable, safe, and cost-effective replacement for therapeutic human serum albumin (HSA). Currently sourced from donated human blood, purified HSA serves a variety of therapeutic uses including hemodialysis, and treatment of hypovolemia, nephrosis and nephrotic syndrome, hemorrhagic shock, burn injury, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, and acute liver failure. It is widely used as a stabilizer in vaccines and therapeutic proteins and used in drug delivery. HSA is also used as a substrate to make advanced biomedical sealants and coatings for biomedical products.

HSA is a $1.8 billion global product today, and demand is growing as products containing it are extended to more of the world's population. The supply of HSA is currently limited by blood donation, which can be interrupted by disease pandemics or the emergence of infectious diseases that may restrict the safe supply of blood. This supply-and-demand imbalance could cause severe shortages of HSA in the future.

High-yield production of recombinant human albumin could improve the reliability and safety of the supply by reducing dependence on blood donation and by reducing the risks of infectious disease transmission between human donors and recipients. Ventria Bioscience has developed the capability to produce commercial quantities of Optibumin and is currently in the process of planning toxicology and phase 1 safety studies.