Market
Therapeutic antibodies represent the most successful class of biological-based drugs with unparalleled growth potential. During the last five years the global revenue growth of antibody therapeutics has consistently grown by more than 30% per annum, reaching sales of over US$ 25 billion by the end of 2007 and projected to grow to almost US$ 45 billion by 2012.
By 2006, eighteen antibodies had been approved by the regulatory authorities for the treatment of human disease, and their excellent efficacy versus side effect profile is revolutionizing the treatment of many chronic and severe diseases.
As more than 200 antibodies against a wide variety of targets, and for various diseases, are currently in development, it is expected that during the coming 5 to 10 years a significant number of these new therapeutics will become available. Amongst these, fully human antibodies are in high demand compared to their rodent or part-rodent counterparts, as they are more compatible with the human immune system and are expected to cause the least severe side effects. Approximately 30 fully human antibodies have now passed the initial clinical proof of concept stage.
To date, almost all fully human antibodies in clinical development and on the market are derived from the current gold standard technologies for therapeutic antibody development: phage display and transgenic mice.
4-Antibody’s proprietary 4mAb™ platform provides a novel, unique and proven method, combining the proven strengths of the gold standard technologies to develop new fully human antibodies, as well as to optimize the efficacy of existing antibody products.
As therapeutic applications for monoclonal antibodies become wider, many more companies seek to develop this promising type of medicine and the 4mAb™ platform offers them the opportunity to do this.