Peptide, a unique pharmaceutical compound, with a molecular weight between small molecules and protein, plays an important role in many physiological processes (including hormones and neurotransmitters) or inflammatory reactions.
Among them, peptide generally refers to a class of compounds formed by dehydration and condensation of 3-50 α-amino acids. Peptide drug, with the advantages of good druggability, high activity, relatively weak toxic reaction, less accumulation, less cross-reaction of drugs, etc, has a total global sales of US$22 billion in 2015, being one of the fastest growing drug fields.
Speaking of peptide drug, we have to mention GLP-1. In recent years, along with the approval of GLP-1 drug from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in China, the promotion of domestic pipeline under research and the development of subsequent commercialization process, the famous GLP-1 kind is expected to promote the expansion of domestic peptide industrial chain. According to the calculation of CITIC Securities, the market size of GLP-1RA weight-loss drug is expected to be CNY 38.3 billion in China in 2030. In the first quarter of 2023, the sales volume of Novo Nordisk's semaglutide had reached US$4.223 billion, and the annual market sales volume is expected to exceed US$20 billion; Eli Lilly's Tirzepatide, which came from behind, has beaten semaglutide head-to-head, which has completed a sales volume of US$568.5 million in less than a year from the last May to the first quarter of 2023.
With the famous weight-loss drugs are famous outside of the circle, such as GLP-1RA, it has also stimulated the market's demand and concern for peptide CDMO (customized R&D and production in pharmaceutical contracts).
Why does peptide CDMO benefit?
At present, peptide drugs are mainly synthesized by two mainstream chemical synthesis methods: liquid phase and solid phase. Liquid phase synthesis, a classical peptide synthesis method, adopts step-by-step synthesis method or fragment condensation method generally. In the step-by-step synthesis method, a single α-amino-protected amino acid is repeatedly added to the increasing amino acid composition usually starting from the C' terminal amino acid of the chain. In the fragment condensation method, target sequence is divided into fragments reasonably in general, then each fragment is synthesized step by step, and finally each fragment is condensed according to the sequence requirements. Liquid phase synthesis is more suitable for the synthesis of short peptides.
In the solid phase synthesis, the carboxyl group of the first amino acid of the target peptide is connected to the solid-phase carrier in the form of covalent bonds, and then the amino group of this amino acid is taken as the synthesis starting point to make it undergo acylation reaction with the carboxyl group of the adjacent amino acid to form a peptide bond. Then the amino group of the resin peptide containing these two amino acids reacts with the carboxyl group of the next amino acid after deprotection, and this process is repeated until the target peptide is formed. Solid phase synthesis is more suitable for the synthesis of middle and long peptides.
However, it faces higher technical barriers in both liquid and solid phase synthesis. For example, for long-chain peptide drugs, the synthesis process often needs dozens of steps, with a big difficulty in synthesis and a low yield, and the impurities in the synthesized crude product are complex, with a large yield loss. Thus, in order to save costs and reduce R&D risks, peptide pharmaceutical company often chooses to cooperate with CDMO company in the early stage of R&D. Therefore, the continuous expansion of peptide drugs has promoted the rapid increase of demand for peptide CDMO.
According the Polypeptide's data, the global market size of peptide API reached US$1.8 billion in 2020, of which 65% use outsourcing services, and the compound growth rate of peptide outsourcing services from 2020 to 2025 is 10%. Read More
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