Next generation monoclonal antibodies to enter clinical trials in 2007
pharmafile | January 20, 2006 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â Ablynx, NovartisÂ
Novartis has signed a deal with Belgium biotech Ablynx to develop the next generation of monoclonal antibodies with clinical development due to begin next year.
Ablynx’s trademarked Nanobodies are ten times smaller than conventional monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), such as Herceptin and Humira, and promise to have more applications, greater efficacy and be cheaper to produce.
Single domain antibodies, such as Nanobodies, are made up from the smallest possible fragments of monoclonal antibodies and their size means that unlike current mAbs they don’t always have to be injected.
Ablynx’s most advanced Nanobodies are candidates for rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and thrombosis, with clinical trials for two of these programmes expected to begin by early 2007.
They are derived from camel and llama antibodies but despite their origins, tests in primates show they do not cause an adverse reaction in the immune system.
Ablynx will receive upfront fees, license fees and R&D funding from Novartis in return for exclusive rights to develop and commercialise products resulting from the collaboration.
Chief executive at Ablynx Dr Mark Vaeck said: “This partnership is the second of a number of corporate alliances that Ablynx will be announcing in the course of 2006 and further validates our Nanobody platform as a promising discovery engine for novel breakthrough therapeutics.”
Ablynx is just one of the companies working in the area collaborating with Novartis. In March last year the Novartis Venture Fund invested in ESBATech, a Swiss biotech developing antibody fragments, and last January the pharma company struck a major deal with Argenta.
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