Physico-chemical stability of co-formulation of PEGylated human amylin with insulin

Abstract

Since the discovery of amylin no combined formulation with insulin has been made available. Amylin or its triple proline analog pramlintide are not compatible in solution with insulin. The drug candidate hAmy-PEG5k is a novel monoPEGylated amylin derivative with improved physicochemical properties and retained similar pharmacological activity compared to free amylin and pramlintide. We have investigated the short- and long-term physicochemical compatibility of hAmy-PEG5k co-formulated with slow-acting human insulin analogs glargine or detemir. While human amylin promptly aggregates over a large range of pH, and both free and in the presence of regular, glargine or detemir insulin, the hAmy-PEG5k analog is stable at these conditions as shown by Thioflavin T (ThT) binding assay. When hAmy-PEG5k (100 or 500 µg/mL) was added to the commercial formulations of either insulin glargine or detemir (95 IU/mL), the combinations remained stable after 6 months stored at 4 °C, as probed by ThT, dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analyses, confirming the absence of amyloid fibers, minor aggregation products or loss of material. These results suggest hAmy-PEG5k and the insulin analogs glargine and detemir are physicochemically compatible and are candidate ready-to-use fixed-dose combinations.