Glenmark's new cancer BEAT

While bispecific antibodies have been around for two decades, their success in cancer has been stymied by poor in vivo properties and complex manufacturing processes. Indian biotech Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is making a play in the crowded field, and has engineered a new type of bispecific antibody that contains elements of a T cell receptor. It is designed to avoid the short half-life and lack of cytotoxicity of other technologies, and can be purified in a one-step process.

The platform - dubbed bispecific engagement by antibodies based on the T cell receptor (BEAT) - also launches Glenmark's first R&D program in cancer. GBR 1302, a bispecific antibody that binds CD3 and epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (EGFR2; HER2; ErbB2; neu), is in preclinical development to treat breast cancer...