Replies to post #8681 on Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (MNTA)

[Goo111]

<<If my memory is correct, in the webinar Dr. Sherman indicated biologics would have > 50 amino acids. I believe I saw somewhere Copaxone has 4. Anyone can feel free to correct me if I am wrong.>>

THANK YOU!

It's greater than 40 amino acids (see verbatim slide below), but this is the confusing part...

"Chemically synthesized polypeptide definition
-Any alpha amino acid polymer that (1) is made entirely by chemical synthesis; and (2) is less than 100 amino acids in size."

... and if it's more than than 100, what do we call it? A ham sandwich?

Between the subject material and the wording I'm very confused about this slide.

Verbatim Slide
==============
Expanded Scope of a Biological Product

Protein Definition
–Any alpha amino polymer with a specific defined sequence that is greater than 40 amino acids in size.

Chemically synthesized polypeptide definition
–Any alpha amino acid polymer that (1) is made entirely by chemical synthesis; and (2) is less than 100 amino acids in size

[vinmantoo]

ghmm,

They are referring to the total number of amino acids in the peptide, not the number of different amino acids used. There are only 4 different amino acids in copaxone, but the peptide is longer than 4 amino acids. Hope this clarifies things. FYI, there are only 20 amino acids encoded by tRNAs. That excludes variants such as seleno-cysteine which is not incorporated by the usual triplet codon method.