• Overview
• Adnectin Product Class
• PROfusion Discovery Engine
• Patent Estate

Adnectin Product Class

Adnectins™ are a novel, proprietary class of targeted biologics derived from human fibronectin, an abundant extracellular protein that naturally binds to other proteins. This binding interaction takes place through specific regions on the molecule called "targeting domains." An Adnectin consists of the natural fibronectin backbone, as well as the multiple targeting domains of a specific portion of human fibronectin. The targeting domains are then engineered by our scientists to enable an Adnectin to specifically recognize a therapeutic target of interest.

Despite the success of the first-generation targeted therapeutic products such as antibodies, additional innovations are sought by the medical community in terms of improved efficacy and convenience. Because of some of the inherent features of Adnectins, as well as our ability to easily engineer and characterize these innovative protein therapeutics, we believe Adnectins can offer important advantages over traditional antibody and small molecule therapeutics for some targets.

Advantages of Adnectins. Key attributes and potential advantages of Adnectin products include:

• High affinity and specific binding to a therapeutic target
• Potential for a broader therapeutic effect in a single drug molecule (e.g., multi-targeted Adnectins, cytotoxic-conjugated Adnectins)
• Opportunity to pursue Adnectins against highly validated targets
• Broad therapeutic application: Adnectins can be designed against many distinct targets, including targets that are hard to drug by traditional therapeutic approaches
• Potential for more convenient dosing: Adnectins can potentially be designed with different systemic half-lives in humans (e.g., hours, days, or weeks) to suit specific therapeutic needs
• Straightforward, efficient manufacturing in E.coli
• Potential for improved tissue penetration: an Adnectin domain is about 15 times smaller than a full length antibody
• Potential for low immunogenicity: the Adnectin backbone is designed from a naturally occurring human fibronectin protein that has evolved to be tolerated by the human immune system

How do we design the right Adnectin candidate to address a specific disease? We generate Adnectins by applying our proprietary protein engineering system, PROfusion™. Our scientists use PROfusion to simultaneously engineer and screen trillions of Adnectin protein variations to find the most desirable candidate.

How do we produce Adnectins? Our process development group createsE.coli-based manufacturing processes to produce Adnectins for preclinical and clinical testing.