Eisai’s subsidiary Morphotek®, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel classes of biological-based products to treat cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases will present its Residue-Specific Conjugation Technology, better kown as RESPECT, at the 9th Annual Protein & Antibody Engineering Summit (PEGS) Europe being held November 13-17, 2017 at Epic Sana Lisboa Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal. The presentation will take place on Tuesday, November 14 at 12:15 p.m. local time during the Next-Gen Engineering stream.
Site-specific conjugation
RESPECT is a site-specific conjugation technology that targets select amino acid residues as a way of producing investigational homogeneous ADCs with defined drug-to-antibody ratios. The platform allows for site-specific conjugation of a single cytotoxic payload or two payloads with different mechanisms of action. It employs a proprietary high-throughput screening system that can simultaneously evaluate hundreds of ADC products consisting of variable antibody candidates linked to cytotoxic payloads to identify those optimal for client-desired biophysical properties, target-specific binding and potential therapeutic efficacy.
As part of Morphotek’s ADC Services, a proprietary payload, which incorporates the FDA-approved eribulin, which is modified via a chemical linker, is offered as an option to develop investigational ADCs for companies interested in developing next-generation formats of their own antibodies.*
Transglutaminase-based conjugation
“We are pleased to have this opportunity to present our proprietary RESPECT platform at the upcoming PEGS Europe,” said Nicholas Nicolaides, President and CEO of Morphotek.
“In this presentation, we will highlight our transglutaminase-based conjugation technology that targets specific lysine residues in IgG antibodies and uses a single amino acid addition or substitution to efficiently produce homogeneous site-specific antibody conjugates, suitable for scalable manufacturing,” Nicolaides added.
End-to-end services
Morphotek’s end-to-end ADC Services business allows for multiple entry points for clients, starting from development of an antigen site-specific bioconjugate-ready monoclonal antibody and ADC to in vivo safety and efficacy validation. Additional options include manufacture of GMP clinical trial material, GLP toxicology studies and development of IHC companion diagnostics for patient screening.
*The ADC described herein is investigational, as efficacy and safety have not been established. There is no guarantee that this ADC will be available commercially.
