Multi-specific antibody therapy is a rapidly growing pharmaceutical area, with a market expected to reach US$ 1-2 billion in the next five years. However, development of multi-specific antibodies in the IgG format is challenging, with extensive engineering necessary to generate multi-specificity and is usually limited to bi-specificity, the molecules can be aggregation prone and difficult to produce and purify. A modular architecture for antibodies, in which new specificities can be added simply by inserting new modules, would therefore be extremely beneficial to generate multi-specific therapeutic antibodies. We have developed and stabilized a small and modular domain antibody format ("Mody", patent filed) based on the variable heavy (VH) domain of Herceptin IgG antibody. It packs identical binding capabilities as a full-length IgG in a molecule 10 times smaller. The Mody format is easy to assemble into multi-specific molecules by linking Modies generated against different targets at the DNA level to generate a bispecific molecule, or linked to a Fc fragment for extended half-life in blood. In this poster, we present the current status of the technology.
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