2021 is a special year in which we celebrate two significant anniversaries: the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin and the 20th anniversary of the innovative biotech production of recombinant human insulin developed by BIOTON. Let’s take a walk down memory lane to see our journey in insulin production.
The beginnings
The BIOTON’s insulin project began in 1997 when the company received financial support to obtain a license to produceand and commercialize insulin in Poland and former COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) countries.
The development of the technology to produce recombinant human insulin was financed partially by the budget funds available through the Committee for Scientific Research. In 2000, we finalized the technology for production of API and finished forms of human insulin.
Why the insulin produced by BIOTON was so innovative?
The Polish technology of human insulin developed by BIOTON is pioneering – it’s the first biotechnological drug developed in Poland and Central Europe based on recombinant DNA technology. The recombinant insulin technology is considered to be the most challenging protein-structured drug to be developed, largely due to the structure based on two polypeptide chains. This technology used the latest scientific achievements in genetic engineering, bioengineering, protein processing, membrane and chromatographic techniques.
In 2000, the human insulin technology was developed and put into production by only three of the world’s innovative pharmaceutical companies. BIOTON was the fourth, and we created our own technology to break down the barriers of entry in Poland.
Commercial production In 2000, BIOTON modernized the biotechnological facilities in Macierzysz, building a new facility for chemical and enzymatic transformation of proteins and substance purification. Besides the facility manufacturing vial s, a insulin cartridge production department complying with global GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) requirements, was set up to produce the finished forms. At the end of 2000, BIOTON registered the first recombinant human insulin, and in the first half of 2001, the company commercialized he insulin, successfully introducing our own insulin into the diabetes market.
The winner of numerous awards
The insulin produced by BIOTON has received numerous awards, including the award from the President of Poland for best product/technology (2001), and The Polish Promotional Programme Foundation – Teraz Polska (2003). The awards granted to the recombinant human insulin project honored not only the scientific and technological success of being the first Polish biosynthetic drug based on the gene recombination technique, but also the first biotechnological project with modern production. The outcome was to significant, contributing to the sales insulin, an essential drug.
Twenty years later, hundreds and thousands of patients around the world uses BIOTON’s insulin every day BIOTON continues perfecting the production on insulin till today, creating new solutions for diabetes patients worldwide.