AdAlta licenses Alzheimer's disease-specific shark antibodies to Crossbeta Biosciences

These shark antibodies are considered to have immediate and highly disease-specific potential for the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Under the terms of the agreement, Crossbeta has been granted an exclusive license to three beta-amyloid oligomer (AßO)-specific shark antibodies, identified under the collaboration signed between AdAlta and Crossbeta in December 2013. These shark antibodies are considered to have immediate and highly disease-specific potential for the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

AdAlta will receive royalties on future revenues from successful commercialization of the AßO-specific shark antibodies as novel therapeutics or diagnostic agents. All ongoing R&D, as well as commercialisation, will be managed by Crossbeta.

Combining the unique strengths of both companies, the R&D collaboration used AßOs produced by Crossbeta’s proprietary oligomer-stabilising technology and AdAlta’s single-domain shark antibody library was used to screen these novel targets to identify the therapeutic and diagnostic lead candidates.

The three licensed anti-AßO antibodies bind specifically to the disease-relevant AßO preparation, but, importantly, do not recognize or bind to the monomer and fibrils of the beta-amyloid protein.

AdAlta CEO Samantha Cobb said: “Crossbeta’s novel and unique oligomer-stabilisation technology enabled us to identify Alzheimer’s disease-specific shark single domain antibodies with highly valuable differential binding properties. The long loop of the shark single domain antibody (or i-body) binds to unusual epitopes with high affinity and specificity, as demonstrated with our lead candidate to a GPCR and previous targets and, most recently, in this instance with Crossbeta’s AßOs. This licensing deal fits with our strategy to focus on the i-body platform and our lead candidate in fibrosis and we believe that Crossbeta with its strong position in the therapeutic area of Alzheimer's is the right partner to realize the potential of these novel antibodies.”

Crossbeta Biosciences CEO Guus Scheefhals said: “We are very pleased with the outcome of our collaborative agreement with AdAlta, exploiting the promising characteristics of our AßOs to the future benefit of the Alzheimer’s field and patients. We will now move forward with developing these novel anti-AßO antibodies as potential treatments of real disease-modification potential and diagnostic use, as early in the disease as possible, for the benefit of Alzheimer’s patients."