Here, Steve Lyon, digital lead, Communities & Content, Allied Market Research (AMR), discusses some examples of new technology in the antibody drug conjugate space and the ground-breaking potential this new class of drugs will have in the treatment of cancer.
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In pursuit of more targeted therapies and clinically effective drugs, pharmaceutical companies are increasing their research and development activities in biologics. Although a majority of this work is focused on monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and recombinant proteins, progress is being made in specialised drugs. Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) are a new class of drugs that are gaining attention from both large and small pharmaceutical companies as they offer promise in cancer therapeutics. They consist of an mAb — an antibody that is specific to the target associated antigen, a cytotoxic drug - designed to kill target cancer cells, and a linker — that attaches the cytotoxic agent to the antibody. Thus, antibody drug conjugates combine the targeting ability of a monoclonal antibody and the target specific cell killing ability of cytotoxic drugs.