Addressing Antibody Developability Challenges Earlier

As advanced biologics, monoclonal antibody therapies leverage the human immune system to precisely target diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.¹ Yet, despite their growing popularity, many therapeutic antibodies fail during clinical development and never reach the market. A key factor contributing to this high drug attrition rate is how scientists evaluate antibody candidates during the early discovery stage.² Researchers primarily focus first on screening for an antibody’s functional activity. Assessment of key developability characteristics, such as solubility, nonspecific binding propensity, thermal stability, aggregation risk, and charge heterogeneity, often comes later after the leads are identified.³ These biophysical and biochemical properties can affect a therapeutic antibody’s safety, efficacy, and manufacturability. The function-first approach, however, means scientists often do not uncover a potential candidate’s poor developability characteristics until substantial time and money have been invested in the candidate selection process.

To help researchers identify developability liabilities in earlier stages, Biointron launched an Antibody Developability Assessment service, which integrates high-throughput antibody expression, functional characterization, and developability analysis. This comprehensive service enables scientists to rapidly generate thousands of monoclonal antibody candidates, reliably evaluate their activity and manufacturing suitability, and holistically select the molecules most likely to progress successfully through the research and development pipeline. Additionally, the workflow is customizable, allowing researchers to select their preferred in vitro developability assays, with each multi-test evaluation requiring less than a milligram of antibody and only three to five days to complete. Overall, services like Biointron’s help streamline therapeutic antibody research by supporting earlier, more informed candidate selection and avoiding costly and disruptive late-stage developability challenges.

Learn more about this efficient, flexible antibody developability assessment service.