The new generation of anti-fungal infection monoclonal antibody drug development has made significant progress. On July 11, 2017,  Tongji University signed a technology transfer agreement with Mabwell (Shanghai) Bioscience Co., Ltd. amounting to RMB 30 million， to jointly develop the anti-fungal infections drug which has independent intellectual property rights, based on the research and development achievements of Tongji University Medical College. Monoclonal antibody drugs, after the achievement of industrialization, will become a more effective drug for the prevention and treatment of invasive fungal infections in clinical practice, filling the blank of antibody drugs in the therapeutic field in China.

The research results of this transfer were from the Jiang Yuanying/An Maomao Research Team. The team was led by Prof. Jiang Yuanying, the chief scientist of the “973 Program,” and associate professor An Maomao who is responsible for the specific R&D management. He has long been engaged in the study of fungal resistance mechanisms and antifungal drugs. And successfully establishing a research platform for antifungal drug-making and preclinical pharmacodynamic evaluation technology, taking a leading position in the research field of antifungal drug in China. After five years of research and development, the research team obtained monoclonal antibody molecules against highly conserved protein of fungal cell wall. The antibody molecule showed strong antifungal activity in vivo in various infected animal models, which can effectively reduce the bacterial load and pathological injury of infected organs, significantly prolong the lifetime of experimental animals, and has good pharmacokinetics.

In recent years, new therapeutic technologies such as anti-rejection after organ transplantation and tumor-enhanced chemotherapy have been widely used clinically, and the number of people with low immune function has been increasing year by year, making the incidence of invasive fungal infections increased. Invasive fungal infections are highly lethal because of the slow progress in the development of antifungal drugs, the lack of clinically applicable varieties, and the propensity to develop drug resistance. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new targets, new mechanisms, and broader spectrum of innovative drugs to be marketed to meet clinical needs. Thus antibody drugs, as a brand-new drug form that flourished in the past two decades, have been favored by large pharmaceutical companies represented by GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, etc., and many small innovative Bioscience companies.

In order to better promote the industrialization of medical research results in colleges and universities, and to benefit clinical patients as soon as possible, Tongji University transferred the results of the “anti-fungal infection monoclonal antibody” to Mabwell (Shanghai) Bioscience Co., Ltd. The product will be used for clinically more effective prevention and treatment of invasive fungal infections, then benefit clinical patients by assisting the immune system to clear the body of fungi faster, shortening the course of anti-infective treatment and the number of administrations.

News source：China new network

Source address：http://www.chinanews.com/jk/2017/07-11/8275048.shtml