The Future of Medicine: Treatment for Diseases With Alpaca Antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies are considered to be in the forefront of the biotechnology industry in treating immunological diseases, especially cancer, because they are highly target-specific and clinically effective. However, antibody therapy comes with considerable side effects, which is an accepted risk in cancer treatment but limits the use of this therapy for chronic autoimmune diseases like psoriasis and severe asthma due to benefit-risk considerations. As a result, many patients with autoimmune diseases classified as mild to moderate have no access to biologic drugs and must settle for steroid-based treatments. These drugs lose their effectiveness with sustained use and come with long-term risks.

Scinai, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in innovative biological products for autoimmune and infectious disease treatment, maintains it has found a solution by using nano-antibodies produced from alpacas (nanoAbs). Amir Reichman, the company’s CEO, talks about the patented technology that they have developed.

The Connection Between Psoriasis and Alpacas

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease that causes rashes, itching, and flaking. In addition to its non-aesthetic appearance, it can also lead to considerable pain and discomfort. According to Reichman, the solutions currently available do not provide a satisfactory response, primarily due to their side effects. He explains, "Current biologic drugs require the injection of antibodies that enter the bloodstream, spread throughout the body, and cause a wide range of side effects, some of which can be severe, such as the development of Crohn's disease. Today, biologic drugs are approved for use in approximately 50% of psoriasis patients, but in reality, only about 25% of them are using these drugs, mainly those with severe psoriasis." He points out that there is currently no suitable biologic drug for mild psoriasis, and patients with moderate cases are reluctant to use them due to the risks. "On the other hand, alpaca nano-antibodies enable the production of a small antibody that can be injected directly into the affected areas and will break down when it enters the bloodstream, limiting its effect to the localized areas. This will prevent systemic side effects associated with injecting drugs into the bloodstream. We aim to create the 'Botox for psoriasis patients' that will be given to patients with mild to moderate conditions and enable localized treatment. The treatment will only be administered when psoriasis symptoms appear, without requiring injections every two weeks as with existing drugs. The Max Planck Research Institute in Germany, our scientific partner from whom we acquired the patent license, has an alpaca farm. Using simple blood tests, they can quickly produce large quantities of nano-antibody libraries, and we select the best antibodies for injecting the substance directly into the affected area without spreading to other parts of the body. Alpaca antibodies are ten times smaller than human antibodies and have excellent targeting capabilities, which allows the substance to penetrate better and degrade rapidly. The psoriasis drug project is currently at the pre-clinical trial stage, planned to be ready for marketing by 2028."

Can this technology be applied to the development of drugs for other diseases as well?

"Definitely! For instance, asthma is treated systematically through subcutaneous injection of antibodies. Just like in the case of psoriasis, apart from the high cost of the drug, its use is associated with a risk of serious side effects. Here, too, alpaca nano-antibodies can be administered directly to the target organ, in this case through an inhaler into the lungs, for a precise and effective treatment with significantly reduced risk of side effects."

"Infectious diseases can also benefit from the use of nano-antibodies from alpacas. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we led a feasibility study to demonstrate its potential via inhalation of the antibody we developed to treat patients who had contracted the virus. In collaboration with the Fraunhofer Society, a major research institute in Germany, we successfully treated hamsters infected with COVID-19 through the inhalation of nano-antibodies. Another branch of the trial provided evidence of the potential use of nano-antibodies as a preventive measure by administering the nano-antibodies through inhalation three hours before virus exposure. In essence, we created a COVID-19 “iron dome" for the hamsters’ lungs that prevented infection, which led the U.S. Department of Health to express interest in the drug's development."

A growth engine for new developments and innovations

Amir Reichman was originally appointed as the CEO of BiondVax Pharmaceuticals in 2021 after the company’s failure to develop a universal flu vaccine. Reichman came to the company from the management of GSK Vaccines in Belgium in order to head its reorganization. Under his leadership, they acquired licenses for the development and commercialization of new patents for nano-antibodies for the treatment of autoimmune and infectious diseases. The company name was changed to Scinai Immunotherapeutics.

Reichman explains that his central aim was to move beyond focusing on a single product: "The success rate in biotechnology projects at the pre-clinical stage is about 5%. Developing a product from the patent stage to market launch can cost a billion dollars and take up to a decade in the best-case scenario. Therefore, the idea that a company can be built around a single product, like what happens in the high-tech industry, is fundamentally flawed and has led to reduced investments in the sector and the so-called "ecosystem failure" in Israel. I transformed this paradigm into a business model for the company that focuses on a vision to bring the necessary technologies to create future products. We use the nano-antibodies platform to develop drugs for a wide range of diseases, such as psoriasis, asthma, cystic fibrosis, as well as infectious diseases like COVID-19 and influenza. In addition to the technology, the team and organizational processes are crucial. We’ve added to high-quality company content that is based on a promising technology platform that can generate various products, thus preventing the company's failure in case one product fails in clinical trials."

Research and Development Services Unit

In addition to its R&D unit, the company also operates a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) unit that provides outsourced R&D services to other startups in the biotechnology field. These services are provided in a state-of-the-art facility in Jerusalem, capable of producing large quantities of products at the GMP level required for clinical trials in Israel, Europe, and the United States. Reichman aims to incorporate artificial intelligence to create antibody libraries artificially, which will preclude the need for alpacas and enable the development of even better drugs while saving time and money.

To the Scinai Immunotherapeutics website >>

Partnered with Scinai Immunotherapeutics