BigPatents India

The insulinotropic peptide, exendin-4, is overexpressed in Pichia pastoris using a codon optimized encoding sequence with a optional signal peptide and/or propeptide. The expression of the exogenous gene is driven by the methanol inducible promoter AOX. The purified peptide from the recombinant organism is alpha amidated at the penultimate serine. The production of exendin-4 may also be carried out in bacteria such as E. coli or in yeast such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The purified recombinant peptide is useful in formulating pharmaceutical compositions for the treatment of diseases such as diabetes and obesity.