Next-gen antibody formats presented at PEGS Europe

At US$230.87bn, monoclonal antibody therapies accounted for the majority of the US$416.65bn global market for biologics and biosimilars at the end of 2023. However, the 16th PEGS Europe in Barcelona showed that the golden age of antibodies is still to come. New formats such as bispecific antibody-targeted radiopharmaceuticals and antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), bispecific antibodies that are activated in their target tissue and multispecific T-cell engagers, CAR-Ts, TCR-Ts and protein degraders are emerging from the development pipelines, as the CSOs gathered in Barcelona exclusively presented. The presentations at PEGS Europe made it clear that the approval of new, engineered bispecific antibodies, ADCs and CAR-T cell therapies has picked up immensely since 2021.

‘To date, 13 ADCs and 17 bispecific antibodies have been approved, representing global sales of US$10bn and US$8bn respectively,’ said protein engineering expert (240 patents) Dr Christian Klein, who recently moved from Roche to early-stage investor Curie.Bio. ‘ADCs and bispecifics are the fastest growing class of therapeutic antibodies’. This is also reflected in the current deal activity.

With eight marketing authorisations in the last three years alone, bispecifics are a particularly attractive antibody format, not least because of the potential to demonstrate completely novel mechanisms of action for the treatment of various diseases that cannot be achieved with monospecific antibodies. The antibodies presented at the PEGS ranged from tumour-eliminating T cell engagers, NK cell engagers and macrophage cell engagers to dual-targeted specific ADCs with selectivity for defined cancer types, cis-targeting of T cell subsets with dual checkpoint inhibitors or cytokines, degraders of cell surface proteins, formats that pass the blood-brain barrier to those that can switch bsAbs on/off in the tumour microenvironment to prevent undesired peripheral toxicities or cytokine and coagulation factor mimetics and much more.

Specialised service providers and sponsors also presented novel methods such as single cell sequencing, proteomics, cryo-EM, machine learning and artificial intelligence that promise to overcome development challenges such as a narrow therapeutic index, premature protein aggregation, unselective release of toxic payloads of ADCs and radiopharmaceuticals, biomanufacturing issues and lack of selectivity for target sites.

‘Participants discussed all aspects of protein and antibody engineering with expanded coverage of AI/ML, drug targets, multi-specific antibodies, immunotherapy, analytical characterisation & developability, protein expression, oncology, and much more,’ the conference organisers of the 16th Annual PEGS Europe Summit from Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) told European Biotechnology Magazine. In the end, the CHI management was very pleased with ‘nearly 1,500 attendees from 38 countries, including 300 speakers and more than 150 sponsoring companies from industry.

More information, detailed conference coverage and a special feature (Antibody Engineering – Services, AI-Tools and Lab Tools), in which companies present their platforms, services, pipelines and products, can be found in the upcoming print edition of the European Biotechnology Magazine (publication date 6 December 2024, advertising deadline: 22 November 2024). For more information on the options and conditions for placing an article, please contact Oliver Schnell, Andreas Macht or Christian Böhm in the Marketing Department.

Next year’s PEGS Europe will take place in Lisbon, Portugal from 11-13 November 2025.