Development of a long acting human growth hormone analog suitable for once a week dosing

Abstract Human growth hormonewas conjugated to a carrier aldolaseantibody, using a novel linker by connecting a disulphide bond in growth hormoneto a lysine-94 amine located on the Fab arm of the antibody. The resulting CovX body showed reduced affinity towards human growth hormone receptor, reduced cell-based activity, but improved pharmacodynamicproperties. We have demonstrated that this CovX-body, given once a week, showed comparable activity as growth hormonegiven daily in an in vivo hypophysectomized rat model.