Precision Endocrine Peptides (PEPs) – Transforming Native Hormones into Innovative Medicines
Endocrine organs secrete peptide hormones (a chain of amino acids) that bind to cell surface receptors and trigger intracellular effects. Too much or too little of a peptide hormone can disrupt appropriate biological function. In these instances, therapeutic peptides acting as hormones have been used to replace or block endogenous biology with the goal of restoring homeostasis and appropriate endocrine function.
Therapeutic proteins have traditionally been developed to mimic naturally occurring hormones, but when developed as medicines they often have some potentially significant drawbacks. Native peptide therapeutics often have short half-lives. They are rapidly degraded by enzymes and swiftly cleared (within minutes to hours) by the liver and kidney. This often necessitates frequent injections, which can result in high variability in peptide plasma concentrations that can promote undesired biological effects of the drug.
To overcome these challenges, MBX Biosciences is pioneering PEPs. PEPs are engineered to have optimized pharmaceutical properties and to transform native peptides into innovative, ground-breaking therapeutics.
At MBX Biosciences, we are pioneering peptide therapeutics to overcome these challenges.
Our mission is to restore health, simplify disease management and improve the quality of life for people living with endocrine diseases.
Our Platform
We have created a world-class technology platform to design PEPs. PEPs are innovative peptide hormone analogs and are designed to overcome key limitations of native peptide therapeutics.
The biological activity of a peptide hormone is intimately related to its chemical structure. Understanding the chemistry is key to knowing how and where to modify the peptide to enhance its pharmacologic effects. By developing groundbreaking new approaches, Richard DiMarchi PhD and his research team are recognized as global leaders in the field of peptide drug design. Leveraging this expertise, we are advancing a pipeline of PEPs that have been selectively modified using state-of-the-art and proprietary chemical modifications to enhance stability and improve pharmacokinetics compared to the native peptide hormone. Further, we aim to extend the duration of action of the PEP thereby enabling less frequent administration.
Through use of our platform technology, we are actively pursuing discovery opportunities in a variety of endocrine disorders. For more information about some of our current PEP product candidates, visit our PIPELINE page.
Our platform, coupled with our clinical expertise, allows us to expand in a number of directions as we continue to advance our pipeline. For more information about our current programs in development, visit our Pipeline page.
