Therapeutic neutralizing antibodies
Patients who can recover on their own under some supportive treatment are probably being protected by neutralizing antibodies generated in response to SARS-CoV-2 proteins, as has been seen in the case of many other viral infections including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Infusion of SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies may aid in faster recovery in infected individuals, thereby reducing hospitalization time. Most importantly, in the absence of any vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, such neutralizing antibodies may also serve as prophylactics for people at high risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 due to occupational responsibilities like medical doctors, nurses, etc.
One source of such exogenous neutralizing antibodies could be the plasma or plasma-derived purified antibodies from the patients who have recovered from COVID-19.[i] However, this approach may be good in the short term, the availability of such plasma with high-titer neutralizing antibodies may be limited and the possibility of other infections may be detrimental to its widespread use.
A more sustainable approach could be the discovery of recombinant therapeutic antibodies with neutralization potential as these can be produced economically using high-density cell culture technologies.[ii] Gennova and its academic partner at the University of Delhi South Campus (UDSC), have developed Fab-based and scFv-based M13 phage-display libraries, respectively, to discover recombinant antibodies against novel targets. These can be applied for discovering SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies.
Once the specific antibody is identified, Gennova will develop and manufacture therapeutic grade neutralizing antibodies to provide immediate prophylactic cover and targeted remission of the disease along with standard supportive therapy. The existing infrastructure and experience of taking 7 different products to market, put Gennova in a favorable position to rapidly manufacture the neutralizing antibodies for clinical trials and, if the trials are successful, to commercialize them.
