Many therapeutics have issues with delivery because of the nonoptimal pharmacokinetics or detrimental side effects due to their nonhuman nature. Therefore, the pharmaceutical industry has employed a variety of delivery strategies such as utilizing a newly introduced system using a natural material. Heparosan is a naturally occurring sugar polymer produced by the body that is stable and inert in the blood stream while being biodegradable. It is a member of the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) family which has similar structure with hyaluronan.

Heparosan is superior in drug delivery due to its perfect biocompatibility and stability. Our body produces no extracellular enzymes that degrade heparosan and there are no known receptors or binding proteins for heparosan. These qualities allow heparosan for long circulation time in the blood. Once heparosan is internalized by cells, most likely through pinocytosis, it is degraded naturally by the resident lysosomal glucuronidase and hexosaminidase enzymes, in a fashion similar to heparin or hyaluronan. With years’ experience in polymer science and protein therapeutics, Creative BioMart has developed different novel heparosan-modified therapeutics. For example, our narrow size distributed heparosan that can offer improved pharmacokinetics and drug performance properties.

Heparosan in an unsulfated form can be attached to drug cargo (sphere) in a variety of formats to create conjugates with enhanced therapeutic action. Reprinted from DeAngelis, Paul L. Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery 2015.