New antibody could be COPD breakthrough, say companies
pharmafile | November 21, 2005 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â Argenta, COPD, DomantisÂ
Two UK biotech companies say their innovative antibody drug could be a breakthrough in treating the chronic respiratory disease COPD.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a chronic obstruction of the airways and caused around 2.7 million deaths in 2000 – making it the world’s fourth biggest killer disease.
The condition is caused mainly by smoking and is set to rise to be the third biggest killer by 2020.
Even the most advanced drugs available today such as Boehringer Ingelheim/Pfzer’s Spiriva and GSK’s Seretide can only control the symptoms, and cannot improve what remains an irreversible condition.
But now two biotech firms – Essex-based Argenta and Domantis, which conducts its research in Cambridge, say their new drug could be the first to halt the progress of the disease.
It is still early days for the human domain antibody (dAb), but the companies say the first studies of the drug in man show it to be superior to current COPD therapy.
“We believe this dAb can become the anti-inflammatory treatment of choice for patients with COPD,” said Argenta’s director of research Dr Mary Fitzgerald.
“Reducing the pulmonary inflammation in COPD should result in a reduction in exacerbation rate and severity and also slow down or halt the decline in lung function associated with the disease.”
Dr Fitzgerald said the drug could be the first to affect the course of the disease and so help millions of patients. She added that the dAb is metabolised quickly after leaving the lung, suggesting it will have a good side-effect profile, which she said was in marked contrast to other COPD drugs currently in development.
Human domain antibodies are the smallest functional binding units of antibodies and are less than one-tenth the size of a full antibody. Normal monoclonal antibodies are too large for inhaled formulations, meaning that the new drug technology has not advanced respiratory therapies, until now.
The companies say dAbs have a number of other unique characteristics which make them highly promising, including being easier to manufacture and more stable than normal antibodies. They could also potentially be designed to target two separate therapeutic targets.
Further studies are now underway to evaluate the dosing range of the product before it enters clinical development in 2007.
Argenta and Domantis are now considering proposals for co-development and marketing deals with other companies.
Both companies have already forged a number of alliances with other innovative biotechs and major pharmaceutical companies, including a major deal struck between Argenta and Novartis in January this year.
Related articles:
Novartis signs respiratory deal with UK biotech companies
Thursday , April 14, 2005
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