Developing therapeutic antibodies for pets
Chronic inflammatory diseases in pets such as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are poorly managed causing emotional and financial distress to pet owners. Current therapies are ineffective - they do not relieve pet suffering and lead to the animal being put down. Therapies are also expensive with costs up to €400/month. Antibody therapy for such conditions has long been used in human medicine but has not been sufficiently developed for veterinary medicine and causes an immunogenic response as the antibodies are not species specific. Antibodies need to be adapted which is expensive and causes severe side effects making them an untenable solution at present. Pet ownership in the EU has been on the increase (up by 2million pets since 2016) due to demographic shifts and a greater reliance on pets as companions. The global animal health market is worth > €29Bn growing at a CAGR of 6% with pet health making up 40% of the market. Pet owners spend €3k - €5k/ year on their pet’s health and are willing to pay to ease pet suffering. adivo is a German biotech company specializing in generating species-specific therapeutic antibodies for companion animals. adivo was founded in 2018. The adivo-team aims to address medical needs in dogs including cancer and chronic inflammation, with the potential of expanding activities into the development of therapeutics for other species in future. adivo has developed CAESAR, the first of a kind synthetic canine phage-display library to generate therapeutic antibodies for dogs. We have developed a complete library from which we can synthesize therapeutic antibodies native to treat IBD. Our solution will overcome the challenges of current therapies and provide an affordable, scalable solution for effective antibody therapy for pets which has been demonstrated in human medicine. We expect to generate out-licensing revenue ≥€15M when we launch the product before royalties and hire 12 people.