30-Sep-2020
200 Reasons to Celebrate - Fusion Antibodies successfully completes their 200th antibody humanisation
Belfast, UK (September 29, 2020) – Here at Fusion Antibodies, we’re celebrating our 200th Antibody Humanisation project, cementing our place as a leading CRO in antibody engineering services. "This 200th Humanisation milestone is a wonderful achievement and I’m delighted for all of these projects which we have successfully completed," says Paul Kerr, CEO of Fusion Antibodies.
Many therapeutic antibodies start off as a non-human animal antibody and are "humanised" to avoid generating an immune response. Since the Fusion Antibodies adventure started in 2001, we have expanded the number of antibody engineering services we offer so we can best meet our customer’s needs. All of this has grown from our core expertise in antibody humanisation.
In 2012 we crystallised our know-how into our proprietary CDRx™️ platform, combining our laboratory experience with powerful in silico techniques. We graft the residues responsible for affinity from the animal parent antibody onto carefully selected mature human donor frameworks that we know to be stable and express well. We know exactly which residues are key to maintaining structure and function and our in silico phase screens out sequence liabilities that can impact stability, immunogenicity, expression, and manufacturing.
Using our CDRx™️ platform, we provide our clients with a 25-variant panel of humanised antibodies that retain the affinity of the parent antibody and that are development-ready. At least a third of antibodies from our earlier humanisation projects have entered clinical trials and we’re looking forward to following the trajectory of our newer projects. "I look forward to the next 200 projects and working with drug developers around globe to create better drugs to unmet medical needs," says Kerr.
We work with a range of customers, from small academic groups to small biotech start-ups, all the way up to big pharmaceutical companies, and many of our customers return for repeat business. Our customers have brought us antibodies from mice, rats, chicken, llamas and birds. They have brought us full antibodies, scFvs and Fabs. And we’re proud to say that every project has finished with a successfully humanised antibody with affinity within a 2-fold difference from the parent antibody. That isn’t our only guarantee. Other CROs offer a "success or your money back" service. We go a step further, and guarantee a successfully humanised antibody, full stop. We keep going until we have a panel of humanised variants with comparable affinity to the parent antibody. We won’t give up after one attempt. We promise to keep going until we have succeeded. "Our robust antibody humanisation platform consistently provides highly manufacturable antibodies to our clients. I am confident that some of the antibodies Fusion has designed will soon be marketed worldwide for the benefit of human healthcare" says Dr Richard Buick, Chief Technical Officer of Fusion Antibodies.
The success of Fusion’s approach is down to a carefully cultivated mix of experience, curiosity and innovation. "Innovation is in our DNA at Fusion Antibodies," says Kerr, "We will continue to improve our CDRx™️ platform with machine learning and AI."
About Fusion Antibodies plc
Fusion is a Belfast based contract research organisation ("CRO") providing a range of antibody engineering services for the development of antibodies for both therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications.
The Company's ordinary shares were admitted to trading on AIM on 18 December 2017. Fusion provides a broad range of services in antibody generation, development, production, characterisation and optimisation. These services include antigen expression, antibody production, purification and sequencing, antibody humanisation using Fusion's proprietary CDRxTM platform and the production of antibody generating stable cell lines to provide material for use in clinical trials. Since 2012, the Company has successfully sequenced and expressed over 250 antibodies and successfully completed over 200 humanisation projects and has an international, blue-chip client base, which has included eight of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies by revenue.
The Company was established in 2001 as a spin out from Queen's University Belfast. The Company's mission is to enable pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to develop innovative products in a timely and cost-effective manner for the benefit of the global healthcare industry. Fusion Antibodies provides a broad range of services in antibody generation, development, production, characterisation and optimisation.
Fusion Antibodies growth strategy is based on combining the latest technological advances with cutting edge science to deliver new platforms that will enable Pharma and Biotechs get to the clinic faster, with the optimal drug candidate and ultimately speed up the drug development process.
The global monoclonal antibody therapeutics market was valued at $135.4 billion in 2018 and is forecast to surpass $212.6 billion in 2022, an increase at a CAGR of 12.0 per cent. for the period 2018 to 2022. In 2017, seven of the world's ten top selling drugs were antibody-based therapeutics with the combined annual sales of these drugs exceeding $63.2 billion.
Many therapeutic antibodies start off as a non-human animal antibody and are "humanised" to avoid generating an immune response. Since the Fusion Antibodies adventure started in 2001, we have expanded the number of antibody engineering services we offer so we can best meet our customer’s needs. All of this has grown from our core expertise in antibody humanisation.
In 2012 we crystallised our know-how into our proprietary CDRx™️ platform, combining our laboratory experience with powerful in silico techniques. We graft the residues responsible for affinity from the animal parent antibody onto carefully selected mature human donor frameworks that we know to be stable and express well. We know exactly which residues are key to maintaining structure and function and our in silico phase screens out sequence liabilities that can impact stability, immunogenicity, expression, and manufacturing.
Using our CDRx™️ platform, we provide our clients with a 25-variant panel of humanised antibodies that retain the affinity of the parent antibody and that are development-ready. At least a third of antibodies from our earlier humanisation projects have entered clinical trials and we’re looking forward to following the trajectory of our newer projects. "I look forward to the next 200 projects and working with drug developers around globe to create better drugs to unmet medical needs," says Kerr.
We work with a range of customers, from small academic groups to small biotech start-ups, all the way up to big pharmaceutical companies, and many of our customers return for repeat business. Our customers have brought us antibodies from mice, rats, chicken, llamas and birds. They have brought us full antibodies, scFvs and Fabs. And we’re proud to say that every project has finished with a successfully humanised antibody with affinity within a 2-fold difference from the parent antibody. That isn’t our only guarantee. Other CROs offer a "success or your money back" service. We go a step further, and guarantee a successfully humanised antibody, full stop. We keep going until we have a panel of humanised variants with comparable affinity to the parent antibody. We won’t give up after one attempt. We promise to keep going until we have succeeded. "Our robust antibody humanisation platform consistently provides highly manufacturable antibodies to our clients. I am confident that some of the antibodies Fusion has designed will soon be marketed worldwide for the benefit of human healthcare" says Dr Richard Buick, Chief Technical Officer of Fusion Antibodies.
The success of Fusion’s approach is down to a carefully cultivated mix of experience, curiosity and innovation. "Innovation is in our DNA at Fusion Antibodies," says Kerr, "We will continue to improve our CDRx™️ platform with machine learning and AI."
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The Company's ordinary shares were admitted to trading on AIM on 18 December 2017. Fusion provides a broad range of services in antibody generation, development, production, characterisation and optimisation. These services include antigen expression, antibody production, purification and sequencing, antibody humanisation using Fusion's proprietary CDRxTM platform and the production of antibody generating stable cell lines to provide material for use in clinical trials. Since 2012, the Company has successfully sequenced and expressed over 250 antibodies and successfully completed over 200 humanisation projects and has an international, blue-chip client base, which has included eight of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies by revenue.
The Company was established in 2001 as a spin out from Queen's University Belfast. The Company's mission is to enable pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to develop innovative products in a timely and cost-effective manner for the benefit of the global healthcare industry. Fusion Antibodies provides a broad range of services in antibody generation, development, production, characterisation and optimisation.
Fusion Antibodies growth strategy is based on combining the latest technological advances with cutting edge science to deliver new platforms that will enable Pharma and Biotechs get to the clinic faster, with the optimal drug candidate and ultimately speed up the drug development process.
The global monoclonal antibody therapeutics market was valued at $135.4 billion in 2018 and is forecast to surpass $212.6 billion in 2022, an increase at a CAGR of 12.0 per cent. for the period 2018 to 2022. In 2017, seven of the world's ten top selling drugs were antibody-based therapeutics with the combined annual sales of these drugs exceeding $63.2 billion.
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Last Updated: 30-Sep-2020
