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Immunoprecise proposes use of PolyTope to treat virus
2020-03-12 07:38 ET - News Release
Dr. Jennifer Bath reports
IMMUNOPRECISE ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF POLYTOPE MAB THERAPY(TM) TO TACKLE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Following its announcement to develop innovative treatments against the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, Immunoprecise Antibodies Ltd. has unveiled its unique approach utilizing PolyTope mAb Therapy, enabled by its diverse discovery platforms and artificial intelligence capabilities with its partner, EVQLV Inc., in the development of a universal COVID-19 therapy.
Current vaccine strategies under development for SARS-CoV-2 are being designed to protect uninfected individuals, however, this does not address the patients with active disease. Antibody therapies represent a potentially powerful treatment option for COVID-19 patients, however, the current, proposed curative options (including polyclonal, sensitized serum or individual monoclonal antibody therapies) are potentially susceptible to escape by viral mutation and are likely not broadly effective against multiple strains, leaving segments of the population untreatable.
"Given the continuous increase in information on SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and seemingly higher than predicted mutation rates, we believe that traditional treatments and diagnostics targeting limited epitopes may present a significant liability for long-term efficacy of a therapeutic, vaccine or diagnostic," stated Immunoprecise chief executive officer and president Dr. Jennifer Bath.
The emerging SARS-CoV-2 virus, and other new (related) pathogens, requires the rapid development of broadly effective treatments and vaccines. Given its biology, developing an effective therapeutic work plan for treating SARS-CoV-2 infection required a sophisticated approach that considered multiple mechanisms of immune system involvement, the predictability of mutations within the virus genome, and other attributes with the potential to provide maximum clinical benefit for both current and future variants of the virus.
Ilse Roodink, chairwoman of Talem's scientific advisory committee and coronavirus global project leader, emphasized, "Our PolyTope mAb Therapy perfectly combines the benefits of using well-defined and fully characterized monoclonal antibodies with the essential need for a multitargeting strategy to tackle this quickly emerging virus, thereby significantly accelerating effective clinical application."
About Immunoprecise Antibodies Ltd.
Immunoprecise is a full-service, therapeutic antibody discovery contract research organization offering species agnostic, multiformat, characterized and engineered, human monoclonal antibodies, on an abbreviated time frame, for its pharmaceutical clients. There is no assurance that Immunoprecise will be successful in the development of a vaccine and/or therapeutic against the new coronavirus.