Scientists discovered the potential of the animals’ antibodies to thwart diseases.
One llama is sprawled on the grass with its neck craned, basking in a patch of sunshine. Another stands on a dirt hill, ears flattened defiantly. A third rushes to greet visitors with a friendly nuzzle.
This isn’t a petting zoo. The furry beasts are in Belgium for work.
Scientists have discovered the potential of the animals’ antibodies to thwart multiple diseases, and now drug developers are collectively plowing billions of dollars into a field that may yield a fresh generation of life-changing medicines. The targets include some hard-to-treat conditions like cancer, nerve pain and a chronic skin ailment.
The llamas are a vital part of the experiment. In between dust baths and grazing, they get injections to trigger the production of their precious antibodies. The animals are some of the few to produce the tiny proteins, dubbed nanobodies, which scientists praise as easy to produce, manipulate and engineer.
“They have this Lego-like nature that you can just snap them together any way you want to, which is really unique,” says Mark Lappe, the chief executive of U.S. biotech Inhibrx Biosciences Inc. “If you try to do that with regular antibodies, it’s wildly complex.”
The field is burgeoning, albeit quietly for now. A Sanofi drug for a rare autoimmune blood disorder was the first medicine developed using llama antibodies to hit the market. AstraZeneca Plc recently released results for an experimental medicine to treat another autoimmune dysfunction that could be a potential blockbuster. And U.S. pharma giant Eli Lilly & Co. has partnered with Belgian biotech firm Confo Therapeutics to gain rights to a product exploring a new approach to pain management.
“I do think nanobodies will be a mainstay of many portfolios going forward,” says Michael Quigley, Sanofi’s chief scientific officer. “Sanofi from our perspective is leading the field.”
Inhibrx, for its part, is working on a therapeutic that can induce the death of some tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue — a progress over some existing cancer regimens. The shares more than doubled after a study showed patients with a rare type of bone cancer and no treatment options lived longer on the experimental drug without the disease progressing. The treatment is undergoing tests for several types of tumors.
The immune system of all mammals produces antibodies to thwart viral and bacterial attacks. Those made by llamas and other members of the camelid family can squeeze into tighter spots and better penetrate tissue than human ones, because they’re smaller and simpler. Some have been reported to cross the blood-brain barrier, eliciting hope for neurological diseases.
