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Recombinant Antibody Technology
Recombinant antibody technology addressed many problems associated with hybridoma-based platforms for biologics production, opening the door to new classes of drugs.
Its Criticality to Past and Future Biopharmaceutical Success
Recombinant antibody technology addressed many problems associated with hybridoma-based platforms for biologics production, opening the door to new classes of drugs. Today, recombinant technology still contributes to the discovery and development of antibody-based therapeutics while helping to improve the performance of other biological modalities.
Early monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies were developed using hybridoma platforms, which involve immunization of animal subjects with target antigens or immunogens. Such technologies were beset not only by ethical issues, but also by batch-to-batch variability, antibody heterogeneity, diminished antibody productivity, limited scalability, and high costs. Moreover, hybridoma-based processes took multiple months from immunization to establishment of specific clones and mAb production.
On the other hand, recombinant antibodies are generated from host cell lines using recombinant DNA technology. This approach greatly reduces reliance on animal experimentation while yielding large quantities of antibody products quickly — within just a few weeks, in most cases. Based on known DNA sequences that can be replicated exactly, recombinant antibody production is highly controllable, reproducible, and consistent. Moreover, recombinant antibodies offer advantages including capabilities for targeting hybridoma-refractory antigens and amenability to engineering.
