Prodrug antibodies and cytokines generated by masking technologies provide plenty of opportunities for founders, investors and partnerships

BARCELONA, Spain I October 06, 2021 I La Merie Publishing announced the release of its newest report about antibody and cytokine prodrugs . The report “Masked Antibodies & Cytokines As Prodrugs: a landscape analysis of stakeholders, technologies, pipelines, business and financing from an industry perspective” provides a landscape description and analysis of prodrug antibodies and cytokines employing conventional and novel masking technology platforms from an industry perspective as of October 2021.

The prodrug concept of masking technologies is an elegant approach to address the selectivity limitations of conventional therapeutic antibodies and cytokines. Masking technologies for antibodies and for cytokines are an attractive object for founders, partners and investors. The field is strongly emerging with preclinical and early clinical data supporting proof-of-concept. There are a variety of technological approaches and it remains to be seen which will demonstrate to be robust and successful.

The report brings you up-to-date with information about and analysis of

• Stakeholders in the field: technology and major pharmaceutical companies and investors;
• Masking technologies: conventional (kinetically controlled); pH dependent and protease cleavage in the tumor microenvironment
• Targets of masked antibodies and type of masked cytokine selected for development of masked biologics;
• Business strategy: pure play (foundational or converted) masking technology company, diversified technology company, exit options, preferred antibody modality or type of cytokine, investment case;
• Financing situation of technology companies and key investors in the field;
• Partnering deals with financial terms;
• Major pharmaceutical companies: preferences for masking technologies, collaboration and licensing agreements.

Therapeutic antibodies have become a clinically and commercially successful treatment modality with more than 100 antibodies approved for therapy and commercial sales of more than US$ 184 bln in the year 2020. However, systemic administration of monoclonal antibodies or cytokines may induce severe adverse events with mechanism-of-action effects, meaning off-tumor on-target toxicity in healthy tissue. In order to increase the selectivity of antibodies and cytokines at the disease site, antibodies should ignore the target antigen and cytokines the receptor in normal healthy tissue and be preferentially active in the disease region.

The use of antibody prodrugs is one new strategy for more specific tumor targeting of biological therapies. Conventional prodrugs are pharmacologically inactive compounds that are converted into active forms in the body after administration. They can be designed to be activated at the intended site of action, thereby lowering exposure of normal tissues to active drug and minimizing toxicity. The most common novel approach to creating antibody prodrugs are protease-activated antibodies that use antigen binding site ‘masks’.

The mask is typically a recombinant protein extension of the light and/or heavy chain of the antibody that has been designed to block access to the antigen binding site and physically prevent binding of the antibody to the cognate antigen. A protease substrate sequence is also inserted between the mask and the antibody. When the prodrug antibody enters the tumor microenvironment, upregulated proteases that are common in cancer tissues cleave the substrate sequence, the mask separates from the antibody, and the antibody becomes competent to bind to its target in the tumor. This doesn’t happen efficiently in normal tissues because there is insufficient extracellular protease activity to remove the mask. The same principle does apply to prodrug cytokines..

This report evaluates the industry landscape of masked antibodies and cytokines in research and development. The report is based on the identification and description of 40 stakeholder, 24 of which are companies with masking technologies and 16 are pharma/biotech companies partnered with masking technology companies.

What will you find in the report?

• Profiles of antibody & cytokine masking technology companies active in the field;
• Description of major pharma’s/biotech’s role in the field (in-house R&D, partnering and investing);
• Comprehensive description and analysis of emerging masked antibodies and cytokines;
• Pharmacologic profiles of selected masked antibodies and cytokines;
• Characterization, profiling and state of antibody & cytokine masking technologies;
• Target selection for each antibody masking technology;
• Selection of type of cytokine for each cytokine masking technology;
• Description and analysis of financing rounds (capital raised, investors);
• Economic terms of collaboration and licensing deals;
• Sources of financing.

The report Masked Antibodies & Cytokines As Prodrugs: a landscape analysis of stakeholders, technologies, pipelines, business and financing from an industry perspectivecan be acquired at La Merie Publishing’s online store: https://lamerie.com/report/masked-antibodies-cytokines-as-prodrugs-a-landscape-analysis-of-stakeholders-technologies-pipelines-business-and-financing-from-an-industry-perspective/

About La Merie Publishing

La Merie Publishing is an independent business information provider for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. La Merie Publishing prepares brief and full reports. La Merie Publishing products can be purchased the online store www.lamerie.com and at selected Resellers.

The focus of our products is directed towards therapeutic biologics, such as antibodies, proteins, peptides, vaccines and gene & cell therapy. La Merie pays special attention to biosimilar antibodies and proteins, antibody drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, TCR & CAR engineered antibodies, mRNA vaccines & therapeutics, oncolytic viruses and immuno-oncology in general.

To leverage its expertise and knowledge accumulated in the in-house database, La Merie Publishing offers custom report preparation services for corporate clients, including, but not limited to, pipeline analysis reports, drug profiles and any other competitive intelligence elaboration of interest for our clients.

SOURCE: La Merie Publishing