Tychan, a biotechnology firm based in Singapore, has developed a monoclonal antibody, TY027, as a potential treatment for COVID-19. It will embark on phase one of its human clinical trials next week.
Monoclonal antibodies are immune system proteins that are created in the laboratory, and can be specially engineered to target and inactivate a virus before it causes an infection.
“Cells are engineered to produce this single antibody in large numbers to be delivered as a therapeutic,” said Assistant Professor October Sessions.
“This makes it different from other antibody treatments, such as utilising serum from patients who have recovered from the infection. But antibodies can vary from person to person, making it difficult to predict their effectiveness.”
He added that that the body of a person receiving a monoclonal antibodies treatment would not reject it as foreign as it looks like any other antibody produced by the body.
The advantage of monoclonal antibodies is that they can be developed in a matter of months and produced in large batches, and the effect of a single injection may last for a few weeks.
Commenting on the development of Tychan’s TY027, Dr Sessions said that for a potential therapeutic targeting a novel pathogen to go from concept to clinical trials in four months is “nothing short of astonishing”.
He said there are currently more than 500 vaccine, antiviral and treatment candidates moving into or through clinical trials. Those that are closest to completing clinical trials and gaining regulatory approvals are drugs that had been developed for other purposes but showed some efficacy against SARS-CoV-2, such as Remdesivir.
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