Accelerating Antibody Delivery With Surf Bio's Bryan Mazlish

In this episode of Sit and Deliver, Surf Bio CEO Bryan Mazlish talks with host Tom von Gunden about subcutaneous delivery of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and other biologics via autoinjectors. Bryan shares with Tom the benefits of polymer-enabled administration of high-dose antibody treatments outside of infusion centers.

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Episode Transcript

Tom von Gunden, Chief Editor, Drug Delivery Leader:

Welcome to another episode of Sit and Deliver, the series in which we hear about drug delivery innovations from leading thinkers in the space. My name is Tom von Gunden, Chief Editor at Drug Delivery Leader and your host for this series. Today, I am joined by Bryan Mazlish, CEO of the biopharmaceutical company Surf Bio.

Welcome, Bryan.

Bryan Mazlish, CEO, Surf Bio:

Thank you, Tom. It's great to be here. Thanks for having us.

Thanks for joining me. Bryan, I know that at Surf Bio you are working on platforms to deliver biologic and mAb treatments using subcutaneous delivery methods. Can you tell us about the focus on subcutaneous delivery and the background and trends that led to Surf Bio’s focus?

Sure, thanks for the question. I'd be glad to give you the why of what we're doing at Surf Bio. It really derives from a number of industry trends that we're seeing related to biologics and, in particular, antibodies. Up until about 2010, there were a very small number of antibodies, 10 to 20, that were available. If you needed to get antibody treatment, almost all of them required a patient to go to a hospital infusion center, which is incredibly burdensome on a patient. It requires spending most of your day commuting to and from the infusion center, and then spending hours at the infusion center, prepping and then sitting for your IV infusion. This, needless to say, leaves a lot of room for improvement. The industry recognized this, and it’s driving towards better solutions.

But there are fundamental constraints about the doses that you need to get when you're taking a high-dose antibody treatment. Combine that with the fact that over the past 10 to 15 years, the number of antibody treatments has gone up tenfold, with 150 to 200 different antibody treatments. There are not enough infusion centers or seats in infusion centers. There are not enough hours in the day to be able to deliver all of these new innovative therapies to patients via IV infusion. The number of antibody treatments will continue to grow over the next 5 to 10 years, going up another tenfold.

There is a widespread understanding in the industry that we need to come up with better ways and make it easier and more convenient to deliver both new and existing therapies. Surf Bio is seeking to solve this problem. Our M.O. is to create the simplest and quickest subcutaneous administration possible for all the innovative biologics that are coming to market.

In a moment, I'll invite you to talk about the science and approaches being worked on at Surf Bio. But before we get to that, can you talk about the space in general? What's currently being worked on in terms of advancements and innovations? How does the work at Surf Bio fit into that current landscape?

Absolutely. I'd be happy to. As I mentioned, there are hundreds of new biologic therapies in development, and there are scores of pharma and biotech companies behind these new therapies. The ante to the game in five years’ time, for anyone who wants to have a successful biologic, will be a robust subcutaneous strategy.

If you're thinking that you can deliver via IV in 5 to 10 years, you're not going to be competitive in what is an intensely competitive space. A small amount of efficacy improvement is not going to outweigh the difference in convenience. I'd also add that not all subcutaneous delivery is the same. Take for example, an on-body injector, which is a small pump that requires a patient to put it on and sit with it for 5 to 10 minutes. This is qualitatively different from an autoinjector that can deliver the therapy within seconds.

At Surf, our motto is an injection in seconds instead of an infusion in hours. That is what we're driving towards. All of the formulation technology we're developing is to enable standard delivery and standard autoinjectors. This is what's going to be enabling for the vast majority of biologics and is a very important topic for pharma companies. Merck, the maker of Keytruda, which is the bestselling drug in the world, is aggressively pursuing a subcutaneous version of Keytruda. Even for the bestselling drug in the world by a wide margin, they recognize the need for a more convenient, more accessible formulation technology to keep their drug relevant and in the lead.

Let's talk about the science at Surf Bio. Can you tell us about how the mechanism of action that you’re working on actually works?

I'd be happy to give you a little insight into that. Before I dive into the details of the differentiation, I just want to call out how large the need for this is. There are hundreds of new products, dozens of companies that are working on this, and there are only a handful of companies, Surf Bio among them, that are working on technologies that will enable this. I don't think that there's going to be a single winner in this space. There are going to be multiple players who play important roles in enabling high-concentration subcutaneous administration. Surf is excited to be one of them.

As for the actual differentiation, one of the key differentiators for Surf is that our technology is enabled by our proprietary polymer rather than a proprietary process, which is largely how other folks are pursuing this. What that means is that Surf leverages existing technologies, existing manufacturing equipment and processes, that include our polymer and, as a result, doesn't require a novel set of equipment and manufacturing lines per se. Therein, it has a significantly lower risk for scalability and commercialization for the hundreds and thousands of kilograms that a successful drug product would require.

Thanks for the insight into what's happening at Surf Bio. Let’s wrap up with a look toward the future. If these advancements and innovations in treatment approaches take hold and are effective, what would be your hope for how the lives and the health of patients might be impacted?

At Surf, we are extremely excited at the promise of new biologics that are in development and existing biologics that are helping to make health better and treat disease better in a more targeted, more personalized fashion. I will reiterate my comments from earlier that in order to support all of the innovative medicines that are coming to market and also make them accessible to the patients who need them, any API [active pharmaceutical ingredient] manufacturer needs to have a robust subcutaneous delivery strategy. Surf Bio is going to be a key player in the space. We're excited for the role we can play in bringing this forward and making this future happen. We appreciate the time to talk it over with you, and thanks for having us.

Thanks for taking the time to give us your perspective and give us some insight into what's being worked on at Surf Bio. I want to thank our audience for joining us for another episode of Sit and Deliver. See you next time.