ABL Bio said that it has introduced a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)x4-1BB bispecific antibody, an antibody that combines 4-1BB, an immunomodulatory target, with BCMA, during the annual conference of 61st American Society of Hematology (ASH).

According to the company, its bispecific antibody does not have any cytokine release syndrome that Celegene's BCMAxCD3 (cluster of differentiation 3), its competitor, has. Also, while Celegene's bispecific antibody only activates T cells among human immune cells, the company's treatment candidate is involved in activating not only T cells but also natural killer (NK) cells.

Due to such benefits, the company expects that its platform will be better in terms of efficacy. Compared to Amgen's BiTE platform-based BCMAxCD3, ABL Bio’s treatment has a much longer half-life.

While BCMA CAR-T, which was one of the hottest topics in the ASH conference last year, has limits to be developed as a customized treatment for each patient, it still has benefits due to their superior convenience when administered to patients and excellent marketability compared to CAR-T in terms of price.

"Our BCMAx4-1BB dual antibody is in the preclinical stage, but we expect the candidate will show excellent data concerning efficacy and stability, compared to recently released trial results for Celegene's bispecific antibody," ABL Bio CEO Lee Sang-hoon said.

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