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Bispecific antibodies poised to deliver wave of cancer therapies

Nature Biotechnology volume 39, pages 251–254 (2021)Cite this article

An explosion of new formats for bispecific antibodies promises to propel the field to better clinical outcomes in oncology.

Merus, of Utrecht, the Netherlands, signed a deal potentially worth over $1.6 billion with Eli Lilly to develop up to three bispecific molecules targeting CD3 on T cells with one arm and various tumor antigens with the other. In a similar vein, Affimed’s tetravalent bispecific-antibody-based ‘Innate Immune Cell Engager’ platform, which uses two single-chain variable fragment (scFv) binding domains to engage immune-cell and tumor antigens on natural killer (NK) cells or macrophages, was the basis for a deal potentially worth more than $2 billion between the Heidelberg, Germany-based biotech and Roivant Sciences of Basel, Switzerland. Other recent agreements include that between the Janssen Biotech arm of Johnson & Johnson and Revitope Oncology to evaluate the latter’s ‘dual antigen T-cell engager platform’ (employing scFv domains targeting tumor antigens, each with a split CD3-targeting domain that can be unmasked by tumor proteases) and a deal worth up to $1 billion between Janux Therapeutics and Merck to develop two immuno-oncology therapies employing Janux’s ‘Tumor Activated T Cell Engager’ (TRACTr) technology (comprising antigen-binding fragment (Fab), scFv and single antibody domains specific for tumor antigens and CD3, with a cloaking peptide linked to a half-life-extending albumin molecule that can be unmasked by tumor proteases).

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    Cormac Sheridan

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Sheridan, C. Bispecific antibodies poised to deliver wave of cancer therapies. Nat Biotechnol 39, 251–254 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00850-6

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