GSK’s Diabetes Drug Tanzeum Gains FDA Approval

The FDA has approved GlaxoSmithKline’s new type 2 diabetes drug Tanzeum that employs Novozymes’ Veltis technology to achieve an extended half-life requiring once a week administration. The drug has also recently been approved in Europe as the brand Eperzan.
 
Novozymes’ VELTIS technology represents a series of engineered human albumins that in combination with a drug candidate, offers the potential for control of the therapeutic half-life, which allows for reducing the dosing frequency of drugs from daily to every two weeks or monthly.
 
“This is yet another important market approval for a drug based on Novozymes’ Veltis technology,” said Dermot Pearson, marketing director, Novozymes Biopharma. “The versatile capabilities of our solution are being continually demonstrated by our customers. Not only has Novozymes developed a platform that helps medicines achieve optimum therapeutic effect, but that also improves the day-to-day management of conditions by extending drug half-life and, therefore, reducing the frequency at which patients need to inject.”