Thanks to the mapping of the human genome and the discovery of a few blockbuster drugs, biotechnology's nearly abandoned antibody sector is experiencing a resurgence.
Stock prices are rising, antibody drugs are selling briskly and public perception of the science is better than it has been in years. This may bode well for curing cancer, the target of most antibody research.
Traditionally, most cancer drugs indiscriminately attack all rapidly growing tissue in the body, hoping to kill more bad cells than good ones. Drugs derived from monoclonal antibody research take a different approach: They target only specific features on specific cells.
Antibodies are able to recognize and bind to specific antigens on cancer cells and slow their growth. By using antibodies to attack mostly cancer cells while leaving healthy ones alone, patients face fewer side effects and greater odds of survival.
Today, there are 12 antibody drugs on the market, up from only two in 1996, and 25 percent of all biotech drugs in clinical trials are related to antibody research, according to Walter Newman, senior vice president at Millennium Pharmaceuticals.
New drugs
In May, Novartis Pharma AG introduced Gleevec, a leukemia drug considered so important that Health and Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson personally announced the government's approval. Without harming healthy cells, Gleevec targets a protein that causes a rare leukemia.
Business analysts expect antibody company sales to increase to US$14 billion by 2009, up from US$2 billion this year.
Just a few years ago, Wall Street and scientists alike soured on monoclonal antibody research. The niche tumbled so far that the drug companies nearly abandoned it as too expensive and too prone to failure.
The biggest problem: Most disease-fighting antibodies were made in mice, so human immune systems rejected the treatments.
Failed drug experiments cost billions of dollars.
Critics even blamed them for deaths. Several class-action lawsuits against the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center allege that its antibody research in the early 1990s was unethical and caused several cancer patients to die. The center denies any wrongdoing.
Renewed excitement
These days, there's renewed excitement in the 25-year-old field that helped spark the biotechnology industry. Now, some companies can clone entirely human genes for insertion into mice that generate antibodies.
"One of the biggest things that has happened has been the humanizing of mice antibodies," said Dr. Christopher Widnell, scientific program director of the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society. "You get markedly less rejection."
The big strides made in genomics also have contributed to the field's resurgence.
``The mapping of the human genome has created numerous new opportunities for us,'' Donald Drakeman, president and chief executive of Medarex, said as he met with other industry executives in late June this year at BIO2001, the world's largest annual biotechnology conference.
Drakeman expects his company will be able to research and develop 10 drugs at a time by this year as opposed to the one or two that Medarex is currently working on.
The recent mapping of the 30,000 human genes makes it easier for antibody researchers to identify the exact genetic makeup of thousands of diseases and design new drugs accordingly.
The next step for the genome project is to annotate all known genetic sequences. That means providing for each protein detailed data on its function, location, variants, similarities to other proteins and the like. Researchers believe this will assist them even more because antibodies attack proteins in diseased cells.
Already, there's been an increase in the number of monoclonal antibody drugs in the research pipeline. Last year, 80 such drugs were under development, and Newman expects more than 200 by the end of this year.
It's been a long wait for cancer researchers.
Two scientists in England, Cesar Milstein and Georges Kohler, won the Nobel Price for medicine in 1984 for producing the first monoclonal antibodies in mice.
The researchers injected mice with cells and then extracted B-cells, the ones that produced antibodies useful in attacking the tumor. Then they cloned B-cells. Because each antibody comes from a single B-cell that is cloned uniformly, the antibody is called "monoclonal."
The breakthrough was hailed as revolutionary because antibodies could be designed to attack only bad cells while leaving alone healthy ones. Cures for many cancers were thought to be right around the corner.
But after numerous failed tests, it became clear in the early 1990s that human immune systems would overwhelmingly reject the mice antibodies.
Medarex and Abgenix Inc then developed mice altered with antibody-producing genes from human. These are proving successful in trials. Other companies have managed to clone antibody-producing genes that are 95 percent human and five percent mouse.
Success rate
Drakeman predicts success for about a third of the antibody-related drugs that are researched, compared with 10 percent for other drugs.
He said tests of antibody drugs "are faster, less expensive to develop and have a higher success rate" than other drug research.
Despite all the renewed hoopla surrounding the monoclonal antibodies, many researchers remain grounded in their praise.
Few hail them as the "magic bullets" promised a decade ago. There's a realization that other drugs and treatments will be needed along with monoclonal antibodies to help cure the targeted diseases.
"I don't think they will ever cure cancer," said Herman Kattlov, a medical editor with the American Cancer Society. "Cancers have a way of learning how to slip away from treatments. But the antibodies are definitely a good tool."
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary