Bispecific antibodies: formats, applications and products

Bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) are designed to bind two different epitopes or antigens, which leads to multiple mechanistic functions with synergistic effects. The attractive feature is their potential for novel functionalities, which do not exist in mixtures of the parental or reference antibodies. Till now, more than 200 BsAb-based clinical trails have been registered on clinicaltrails.org and 4 BsAbs (with one withdraw) have been granted FDA approval. The promising future makes BsAbs attracting more attentions.

The connecting of two specificities within one BsAb can be exploited for novel therapeutic concepts. The mostly applications of BsAbs are recruiting effector cells to the target cells, which are regarded as the immune cell engagers. The redirection of the cytotoxic effector cells (T and NK cells) to the targeting cancer cells by BsAbs physically link them together and activate the effector cells to eliminate the target ones. In addition, the BsAbs can also be used to link two molecules together to make the therapeutic effects such as the dual inhibition of immune checkpoints, the conditionally activate a growth factor receptor for diabetes treatment and the replacement of natural bridge molecules such as the coagulation factor VIII. More innovative designs of BsAbs can be achieved in the future.

To accelerate the development of BsAbs, Genemedi offers the high quality, premade benchmark BsAbs for researchers. The biosimilars are expressed by mammalian cell line and used for biological drug discovery items including cell culture, assay development, animal model development, PK/PD model development (Pharmacokinetics & Pharmacodynamic) and mechanism of action (MOA) research.