PIERIS Announces Breakthrough in Anticalin(R) Technology
Human ANTICALIN(R) with picomolar affinity against commercially relevant protein target
FREISING, Germany, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- PIERIS Proteolab AG, a leading biopharmaceutical and protein engineering company, announced today at the BioEurope conference in Frankfurt, Germany, that its drug discovery engine succeeded in generating multiple novel Anticalins® against more than half a dozen commercially relevant protein targets with affinities from the low nanomolar range to even 130 picomolar, without the requirement for further maturation steps. In addition, first acute toxicity studies in mice revealed a good safety profile.
"The identification of these novel Anticalins® with high specificity and stability illustrate the potential of our proprietary Anticalin® technology. These exciting results form the basis of our business strategy to build a unique pipeline of innovative antibody-like compounds against well-validated biological targets in order to decrease the inherent risk of product development," commented Martin Poehlchen, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of PIERIS.
"Although it has been known that Anticalins® can be engineered to bind prescribed small molecules with even higher specificity than antibodies, these novel Anticalins® directed against protein targets clearly demonstrate the broad versatility of the Anticalin® technology and their potential of becoming a leading class of antibody-like therapeutics. Furthermore, it is important to note that no affinity maturation was needed in order to achieve these results, which should hence shorten the preclinical development time," stated Prof. Arne Skerra, vice-chairman and also co-founder of PIERIS.
"First acute toxicity studies with Anticalins® in mice did not show any dose limiting toxicity up to doses of 25 mg/kg which is equivalent to antibody concentrations as high as 100 mg/kg. This fact is fully in line with the safety profile of a natural lipocalin that was tested systemically in two animal species and in a first phase I/II study for topical application by another group. Moreover, Anticalins® can be produced in large quantities in E. coli and thus offer a key advantage compared to the high cost of goods and the complex manufacturing of humanized monoclonal antibodies," Dr Herbert Schwarz, PIERIS' Director of Preclinical Research, continued. Further preclinical experiments have been initiated by PIERIS.
PIERIS Proteolab AG:
PIERIS Proteolab AG is a biopharmaceutical and protein engineering company that has specialised on the development and commercialisation of Anticalins®. Its activities are focused on therapeutic applications, as well as medical diagnostics, especially in the area of tumour and inflammatory diseases. Anticalins® are engineered proteins with antibody-like binding functions derived from natural lipocalins as a scaffold. PIERIS developed this revolutionary technology, which allows the rapid generation of high-affinity human protein product candidates against defined disease targets. With its Anticalin® technology, PIERIS intends to build a large and diverse product portfolio both through developing its internal proprietary products and through collaborative arrangements with pharmaceutical, biotechnology and genomics companies. For this purpose, PIERIS has generated the Theracalin® library containing more than 10 billion unique Anticalins® derived from a fully human lipocalin scaffold. In October 2002 PIERIS closed a Series A financing round of 12 million EUR. PIERIS is based in Freising, near Munich, Germany.
Anticalin®, Anticalins®, Theracalin®, PIERIS Proteolab®, and the Company's logo are registered trademarks or service marks of PIERIS. |
