Introduction/ The market
According to BIS Research and Research and Markets the worldwide biologics drug discovery market is predicted to increase from USD $8.1 billion in 2015 to USD $22.7 billion by 2025 (Figure 1). The biologics discovery growth rate is
predicted to be faster than in the dominant small molecule discovery sector. Monoclonal antibodies are expected to make up just under half of the biologics discovery market in 2025. Engineered or recombinant proteins such as next generation protein therapeutics are expected to contribute 3 billion to the market in 2025.

The dominance of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are due to several factors including their efficacy brought aboutby their high specificity allowing selective targeting; long half-life compared to small molecules due to the presence of the Fc region that allows the antibodies to engage the FcRn mediated salvage; and the ability to activate immunemediated effector functions, e.g. antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC), via the interaction of Fc portion with Fc-gamma receptors. Promoting their adoption, Mabs have proven useful in the rapidly expanding immune-oncology field which has led to a proliferation of antibody products through “copy-cat” development. Mabs, however have important disadvantages such as cost of goods that next generation protein therapeutics do not suffer from. 

Next generation protein therapeutics can be considered antibody mimetics as each protein therapeutic is composed of a constant region, which stabilizes the overall protein folding, and variable regions that facilitate its target binding (Table 1). The specificities of these next generation proteins variable regions can be directed in vitro, contrasting antibodies and antibody fragments which require the immunization of animals to generate.

References

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June 18-20, 2019
Park Central Hotel,
San Francisco

June 5-7, 2017
Paradise Point San Diego,
San Diego, CA

Whitepaper Summary:

Use of Next Generation Protein Therapeutics Over Traditional Monoclonal Antibodies and Different Approaches