In June, Adbiotech, a Korean veterinary drug manufacturer, announced plans to expand and develop a new immune antibody platform by recruiting Professor Ito from Kagoshima University as a technical advisor to advance nanobody technology.

Nanobody technology(VHH: Variable heavy chain domains of heavy chain antibody) is a technology to separate and manufacture the antigen recognition variable region of a single chain antibody found in camelids. Nanobodies are characterized by a simple structure compared to general antibodies, and have strong tissue permeability due to their small size, high structural stability, and easy purification and mass production.

In addition, it is highly resistant to environmental factors (high solubility and temperature and pH, etc.), and has high utility because structural and functional transformation through protein engineering is relatively easy.

This nanobody technology can overcome the advantages of neutralizing antibodies that neutralize pathogenic proteins, and the disadvantages such as the difficulty and high price of single-domain antibody production. 

Moreover, it is expected that it will be possible to expand and develop antibody products for human use as well as antibody products for livestock and fisheries for various purposes that can interact with antigens that are difficult to access by existing antibodies because they are about 1/10 of the size of existing antibodies.

On the other hand, Adbiotech is a company established in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea in 2000, and has been showing prominence in the field of immune antibodies such as veterinary medicine business and health functional food business, and continues to grow.

Adbiotech CEO Jung Hong-geol said, “Professor Ito’s technical advisory recruitment is for the establishment of nanobody and single-chain antibody fragment (scFv) technology and the establishment of various immune antibody platform technologies in the future.” 

“Through this technological innovation, We plan to expand to the development of antibody drugs for human use, and we will focus on global penetration by developing new products based on collaboration and strategic investment with various bio companies in the future.”