Background of anti-cancer therapeutic antibodies and Patrys’ Competitive Position

Antibody therapeutics are one of biotechnology’s hottest segments, with four products Avastin, Rituxan, Herceptin and Erbitux now exceeding over $1 billion in annual sales.  Annual sales for antibody therapies are expected to exceed US$60 billion in 2010.

Traditionally, researchers have utilised non-human animals (mostly mice) to generate antibodies that attack human cancer tissues.  In most cases, after being generated, researchers then alter the non-human antibodies by adding human components, although no antibody on the market is completely human in composition.

Current marketed antibodies have a number of critical weaknesses, each of which can be addressed by Patrys’ natural human antibody technology:

Human composition: All antibodies on the market contain non-human components, whereas Patrys’ antibodies are completely human. The greater human composition of Patrys’ products offers potential benefits in terms of a lower risk of rejection and higher potency due to a more effective ability to communicate with the other elements of the immune system (i.e., the greater the human composition, the greater the effector function of the antibody).

Cancer specificity: Products currently on the market were not isolated from humans, and therefore lack the ability to distinguish between human cancer tissues and human healthy tissues – that is, antibodies on the market attack “targets” that appear on both cancer tissues and healthy tissues.  In contrast, Patrys’ natural human antibody products attack only cancer tissues in experiments done to date. This has potential safety benefits for Patrys’ products and offers higher potency and lower dosing possibilities as Patrys’ antibodies are not expected to be “soaked-up” by healthy tissues.

Blocking IP position: Nearly all antibody companies with products on the market have a compromised ability to block others from developing second generation antibodies that attack the same disease target as the marketed antibody.  On average, each of the four marketed anti-cancer antibodies face competition from 10 second generation antibodies in the clinic.  In contrast, Patrys’ technology and approach allows it to discover and protect (through patent filings) new antibodies against newly discovered targets, providing our company with potentially long term protection against second generation products.

Markets: Patrys’ products react to a large percentage of patient populations, regardless of age, gender or disease stage, whereas antibodies on the market often target subsections of such populations (e.g., Herceptin, a billion dollar breast cancer treatment, only applies to 30% of the population).

In summary, the combination of the potential benefits of Patrys’ lead anti-cancer natural human antibodies and the strong demand for better therapeutics provides Patrys with a significant opportunity to convert its technical advantages into commercial success.