Profound Pharma A/S was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

company that develops 2nd generation

biopharmaceutical A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biological medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, t ...

History

Created in Denmark in 1999 by Christian Karsten Hansen and Jan Møller Mikkelsen, formerly of

Novo Nordisk Novo Nordisk A/S is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bagsværd, Denmark, with production facilities in nine countries, and affiliates or offices in five countries. Novo Nordisk is controlled by majority shareholder ...

, the company was funded by venture capital and a loan from Vækstfonden. After rapidly growing to employ 50 scientists, and filing large numbers of patent applications, the company was acquired by

Maxygen Maxygen Inc. was a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing improved versions of protein drugs using DNA shuffling and other protein modification technologies. The company was headquartered in Redwood City, CA. It dissolved in 2013. The M ...

in 2000, for $60 million in stock. From its acquisition by

until 2008, the company continued as a subsidiary of

forming the cornerstone of its biopharmaceutical business, and contributing to

´s molecular breeding technology. With

NeuroSearch NeuroSearch A/S is a Danish biotechnology company specializing in pharmaceuticals for treating diseases and disorders affecting the central nervous system (CNS). History NeuroSearch was founded in Denmark in April 1989 as one of the first comp ...

Genmab Genmab A/S is a Danish biotechnology company, founded in February 1999 by Florian Schönharting, at the time managing director of BankInvest Biomedical venture fund. The company is based in Copenhagen, Denmark - internationally, it operates thro ...

and

Zealand Pharma Zealand Pharma A/S is a Danish biotechnology research company, which designs and develops peptide-based medicines, mainly focusing on metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity. The company's head office is situated in Søborg near Copenhagen, ...

, Profound Pharma was among the early members of the

Medicon Valley Medicon Valley is a leading international life-sciences cluster in Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. E ...

biotech cluster. Its initial directors were Dr. Claus Bræstrup, Prof. Thue Schwartz and Knud Aunstrup.

Projects

Profound Pharma developed improved versions of

interferon beta The type-I interferons (IFN) are cytokines which play essential roles in inflammation, immunoregulation, tumor cells recognition, and T-cell responses. In the human genome, a cluster of thirteen functional IFN genes is located at the 9p21.3 cyto ...

granulocyte colony-stimulating factor Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF or GCSF), also known as colony-stimulating factor 3 (CSF 3), is a glycoprotein that stimulates the bone marrow to produce granulocytes and stem cells and release them into the bloodstream. Functional ...

TNF inhibitor A TNF inhibitor is a pharmaceutical drug that suppresses the physiologic response to tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which is part of the inflammatory response. TNF is involved in autoimmune and immune-mediated disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, ...

factor VII Coagulation factor VII (, formerly known as proconvertin) is one of the proteins that causes blood to clot in the coagulation cascade, and in humans is coded for by the gene ''F7''. It is an enzyme of the serine protease class. Once bound to tis ...

and other commercially important protein pharmaceuticals.

Technologies

Profound Pharma used a variety of

protein engineering Protein engineering is the process of developing useful or valuable proteins. It is a young discipline, with much research taking place into the understanding of protein folding and recognition for protein design principles. It has been used to imp ...

and protein modification technologies including site-directed

mutagenesis Mutagenesis () is a process by which the genetic information of an organism is changed by the production of a mutation. It may occur spontaneously in nature, or as a result of exposure to mutagens. It can also be achieved experimentally using la ...

, rational design,

PEGylation PEGylation (or pegylation) is the process of both covalent and non-covalent attachment or amalgamation of polyethylene glycol (PEG, in pharmacy called macrogol) polymer chains to molecules and macrostructures, such as a drug, therapeutic protein ...

glycosylation Glycosylation is the reaction in which a carbohydrate (or ' glycan'), i.e. a glycosyl donor, is attached to a hydroxyl or other functional group of another molecule (a glycosyl acceptor) in order to form a glycoconjugate. In biology (but not al ...

, and de-immunization. These technologies complemented the molecular breeding technology of

References

{{Reflist Pharmaceutical companies of Denmark Biotechnology companies of Denmark Pharmaceutical companies established in 1999 Danish companies established in 1999