Domantis extends life of protein therapeutics

AlbudAbs - the latest invention of Cambridge (UK) antibody-therapeutics developer Domantis, a 36-per cent owned ally of Sydney biotech Peptech (ASX:PTD)- were yesterday launched on the market, with the promise that they can extend the half-life of protein therapeutics.

The placement of the capitals confuses pronunciation, but the name - a synthesis of "albumin" and "domain Antibody" - embodies a structural description of Domantis' latest feat of peptide wizardry.

Domantis is offering its clients a service that will custom-design fully humanised domain antibodies (dAbs) - its proprietary technology - to mate up with the client's therapeutic drug, so that when the modified molecule is injected into the patient, it will latch onto a passing molecule of the most common protein in the blood, serum albumin.

Human serum albumin has a half-life of three weeks. It can endow any AlbudAb-conjugated protein, peptide or small-molecule drug with a substantial slice of its own ample half-life - drugs with half-lives of mere minutes to hours can be "AlbudAbbed" to half-lives of hours or even a few weeks, extending their therapeutic benefit to patients.

Domantis co-founder and chief scientific officer, Ian Tomlinson, said Albudabs, in contrast to current technologies used to extend drug activity, like PEGylation (polyethylene glycol), fusion to the immune system's own Fc receptor, and rival albumin-fusion technologies, AlbudAbs are much easier to manufacture in bulk, in yeast or bacterial expression systems.

"They represent a powerful and broadly applicable approach to improving the efficacy of short-lived therapeutic drugs which we expect to rival the industry gold standards," Tomlinson said.

Domantis CEO Robert Connelly said the technology was another example of the breadth of applications for domain antibody technology.

He said Domantis had completed three studies with AlbudAbs to evaluate their serum half-lives and in vivo potencies. In each case, AlbudAb conjugation had endowed the therapeutic drugs with bloodstream half lives similar to those of full antibodies, or PEGlylated proteins.

In addition to servicing drug-company clients, Domantis plans to apply the technology to its own antibody therapeutics - it has a dozen in development.