Fibrinogen and thrombin are two important clotting proteins in our blood that function as 1st line responders to tissue injury. Not only do they prevent blood loss, they also trigger host defense against pathogens and support tissue repair. This multifaceted role is underpinned by the occurrence of different fibrinogen variants in blood. Each of these naturally occurring variants can form an insoluble fibrin matrix after activation by thrombin. However, each variant has distinct functional properties that are unique to that specific variant. All of the human fibrinogen currently used in various heamostsis products on the market is sourced from donor blood/plasma and is a mixture, of the different variants. Extracting individual fibrinogen variants from donor plasma is commercially infeasible, making recombinant production in mammalian cells the only alternative. Furthermore, the use of donor blood as a source of fibrinogen and thrombin has several other disadvantages, namely [1] poor safety profile: risk of blood born disease transmission; [2] low purity resulting in limited stability; [3] limited supply of donor blood/plasma creating a dependence on plasma from the US and sensitive to environmental factors such as the COVID19 pandemic and [4] regional import and export restrictions.
The only way to fully exploit the full healthcare potential of the individual fibrinogen variants and to overcome the disadvantages of using donor blood, we have developed the RECOFIB platform. This recombinant manufacturing platform is based on Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells (CHO) expression technology & proprietary upstream purification processes. The RECOFIB platform aims to bring to market fully intact & functional individual rhFib variants and active rhThr at commercially acceptable cost. With these individual rhFib variants as stand-alone or in combination with rhThr, we plan to develop customized products for [1] bioactive topical haemostats to stop excessive bleeding during surgery (RecoSeel); [2] anti-microbial coatings for medical devices to reduce development of antibiotic resistant biofilms (RecoCoat) and [3] supply of rhFib variants & rhThr as OEM products. Additional benefits of the RECOFIB platform include higher product purity, increased stability, improved safety profile, lower production cost (for rhThr) and reduction of the reliance of donor blood or plasma.
