Victorian based biotechnology company AdAlta and Ferring Research Institute Inc. (FRI), have been awarded a $50,000 Technology Development Voucher by the Victorian Government to evaluate the use of AdAlta’s technology in research into potential treatments for Crohn’s disease.
FRI, the USA-based research division of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a Switzerland-based global pharmaceutical company, will work with AdAlta to identify a novel therapeutic for the treatment of Crohn’s disease, a type of inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. The Technology Voucher will allow FRI to test AdAlta’s i-body technology, which represents the next generation of biological therapeutics.
AdAlta’s i-body technology combines the advantages of small drug-like molecules with the specificity of antibodies. The i-body has a number of advantages, including small size and extreme stability, which allow unique application in the delivery of therapeutic compounds.
This project will establish a new collaborative relationship between a Victorian biotechnology company and an international biopharmaceutical company. If the project is successful and clearly demonstrates technical application of AdAlta i-body technology to FRI’s drug target, it is likely to lead to a broader strategic collaboration, including manufacture and testing of the compounds, and integration of the i-body technology into the Ferring product pipeline.
About AdAlta
AdAlta is pioneering a new technology that uses the human equivalent of the shark antibody, known as the i-body that can be used as therapeutic interventions in disease, offering a new and more effective approach to a wide range of human diseases. The novel i-body libraries can be screened in the lab against a disease target to identify a therapeutic lead candidate. I-bodies show high target specificity and high affinity for their target. The i-bodies are stable at high temperatures and low pH and can be manufactured in bacterial systems. In addition to the stability, the i-body has a long binding loop that human antibodies and other next generation antibodies do not have. The i-body with this long binding loop can target sites that traditionally antibodies can’t, such as clefts in cell surface receptors or the active sites of enzymes or targets such as GPCRs and ion channel targets.
AdAlta Pty Ltd
CONTACT: Samantha Cobb, CEO and Managing Director
PHONE: +61 3 9479 5159
E-MAIL: s.cobb@adalta.com.au