MORPHODOMA ® Technology Enhancing Therapeutic Antibodies and Titer Yields of Mammalian Cell Lines

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) represent the fastest growing segment of the biopharmaceutical market, with sales that totaled greater than $3B in 2002 and have been projected to grow to over $5B by 2005. A survey of 144 companies by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America has shown that there are 75 MAbs in development among the 371 biotechnology based medicines currently in clinical development (1). The dramatic success of the use of antibodies as therapeutics has created substantial value for companies developing these products (2, 3). Moreover, the recent approvals of Erbitux, Avastin, and Xolair support the view that antibodies offer a safe, effective therapeutic treatment for human disease. This widely held view of the safety and therapeutic efficacy of antibodies is driven by the wealth of research that has accumulated over the last fifteen years demonstrating the utility of targeting the highly specific nature of disease-associated antigens.