Candidates: 47D11
Category: ANTIBODY
Type: Fully human neutralizing antibody to prevent and treat COVID-19 using HBM’s H2L2 Harbour Mice® platform.
Status: AbbVie on June 5 joined Harbour BioMed (HBM), Utrecht University (UU), and Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) to develop a novel antibody therapeutic to prevent and treat COVID-19 by advancing 47D11, through a partnership whose value was not disclosed. AbbVie agreed to support its partners through preclinical activities, while simultaneously undertaking preparations for later stage preclinical and clinical development work. In return, AbbVie will receive an option to exclusively license the antibody from HBM, UU, and EMC for therapeutic clinical development and commercialization worldwide.
HBM, UU, and EMC on May 4 published a study in Nature Communications detailing what they said was the first report of a human monoclonal antibody that prevents SARS-CoV-2 from infecting cultured cells, neutralizing COVID-19—an initial step, researchers wrote, toward developing a fully human antibody to treat or prevent the disease.
47D11 was shown to bind a conserved epitope on the spike receptor binding domain, explaining its ability to cross-neutralize SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, using a mechanism that is independent of receptor-binding inhibition. This antibody will be useful for developing antigen detection tests and serological assays targeting SARS-CoV-2, the researchers from HBM, UU, and EMC said: “This antibody—either alone or in combination—offers the potential to prevent and/or treat COVID-19, and possibly also other future emerging diseases in humans caused by viruses from the Sarbecovirus subgenus.”
COVID-19: 200 Candidates and Counting
To navigate through the >200 potential therapeutic and vaccine options for COVID-19, GEN has grouped the candidates into four broad categories based on their developmental and (where applicable) clinical progress:
● FRONT RUNNER – the most promising therapeutics/vaccines based on clinical progress, favorable data or both.
● DEFINITELY MAYBE – earlier phases with promising partners, or more advanced candidates in development that have generated uneven data.
● KEEPING AN EYE ON… – interesting technology, attracting notable partners, or both, but preliminary data.
● TOO SOON TO TELL – longshots pending additional experimental and/or clinical data.
GEN has also tagged the most common treatment types:
● ANTIVIRAL
● VAX
● ANTIBODY
● RNA
