Specifica Announces Antibody Discovery Platform Transfer to Bayer

SANTA FE, N.M., May 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Specifica, a leading provider of antibody discovery technologies, today announced the transfer of a suite of Specifica's Generation 3 antibody libraries to Bayer under an agreement that will enable the development of antibody-based therapeutics.

Antibody Libraries are the sources from which therapeutic lead antibodies can be selected using phage or yeast display. Specifica's Generation 3 Antibody Platform delivers exclusive, high-affinity, drug-like antibody candidates and is designed to facilitate the development of high-quality therapeutics.

"Specifica's mission is to arm drug developers with pioneering antibody technologies in order to enable novel cures quickly and efficiently," said Ken Sharples, CEO and cofounder of Specifica. "We are proud of our close collaboration with Bayer to provide libraries in which we optimized essential elements."

The Specifica Generation 3 Library Platform was designed to deliver antibody libraries with the characteristics critical to creating high-quality therapeutics. Developability, high diversity and reduction of sequence liabilities are intrinsic to the multiple sub-libraries making up the platform, each of which is based on a therapeutic antibody scaffold chosen for its biophysical properties, lack of liabilities and germline gene variety. Diversity is all derived from natural CDR sequences: HCDR3s are amplified directly from purified B cells, while replicated natural CDRs, derived from Specifica's databases, are used for the rest.

"Specifica uses next-generation sequencing for quality control at all steps of library construction and validation, including a direct count of the number of different antibodies in each Specifica library to ensure high diversity standards," said Andrew Bradbury, cofounder and Chief Scientific Officer of Specifica. "Libraries with high diversities mean more antibodies, recognizing more epitopes, with higher affinities against targets. Specifica libraries are made with common or variable light chains, as scFv or Fab and in phage or yeast display formats."

The transfer of Specifica's Generation 3 Platform to Bayer followed in-house testing by Bayer. Each library Specifica provides to its partners is created from unique donor sets that are never used for any other library. Adoption of the Specifica Platform involves full transfer of the company's technology, including vectors, comprehensive protocols and a unique exclusive library.

About Specifica
Specifica develops visionary antibody technologies to empower companies creating cures. Specifica's Generation 3 Antibody Library Platform is available on an exclusive basis, in multiple formats, under straightforward business terms. Drug-like antibodies, with broad diversity, high affinities and few biophysical liabilities, can be selected directly without the need for downstream improvement. In addition to in-house antibody library designs, Specifica also collaborates closely with partners to create custom libraries in which essential elements are optimized according to partner needs. Specifica also uses its Generation 3 Platform to carry out antibody discovery. Specifica is headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information please visit www.specifica.bio and follow Specifica on Twitter and LinkedIn.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/specifica-announces-antibody-discovery-platform-transfer-to-bayer-301057215.html

SOURCE Specifica