Will pet therapeutic monoclonal antibody therapy be the blue ocean in the field of pet disease diagnosis and treatment in the next 20 years?
Recently, Invetx, an animal health biotechnology company based on monoclonal antibody therapy, publicly announced that it has agreed to be acquired by Dechra Pharmaceuticals Limited, a global professional veterinary drug company. The purchase price is as high as US$520 million (approximately 3.8 billion yuan), but the acquisition is still subject to antitrust authority approval and other customary closing conditions.
Since its inception in 2018, Invetx has independently built and integrated an industry-leading discovery, development, and manufacturing monoclonal antibody platform for the development of species-specific, half-life-optimized pet medicines. Invetx will enable its application in animal medicine through effective biotechnology to optimize human health, developing and producing highly differentiated antibodies to treat a wide range of high-incidence, chronic and severe diseases in animals.
Perhaps the level of awareness of therapeutic monoclonal antibody therapy for pets is not high enough. To put it simply, monoclonal antibodies are a class of engineering proteins that can specifically recognize an antigen, and their role is to accurately recognize and destroy the disease-causing antigen.
Pet Industry Watch has previously mentioned that in the field of pet disease diagnosis and treatment in the next 20 years, pet therapeutic monoclonal antibody therapy may be a more desirable "pearl". If we compare the development process of human medicine, monoclonal antibody therapy is likely to become the mainstream treatment for pet chronic diseases in the next 20 years. Beyond the limitations of traditional drugs, Geinzumab therapy has the advantages of good targeting, effective safety, and long-term effect, and can achieve precise control of diseases in a new way.
In fact, since the first antibody therapy research and development race gave birth to the biotechnology industry more than four decades ago, more than 100 antibody drugs have been approved for various human diseases in the United States so far. But even in the United States, where the pet industry is highly developed, few antibody drugs have been approved for pets before. Among them, Zoetis has gained a huge first-mover advantage as a pioneer in the field of preemptive pet monoclonal antibody therapy.
In 2016, Zoetis launched Certamine, a monoclonal antibody for the treatment of atopic and atopic dermatitis in dogs. According to Zoetis CFO Wetteny Joseph at the May 2023 Investor Day event, Cytopoint is expected to generate full-year sales of $500 million in 2023. At that time, it also pointed out that Zoetis also had more than 50 monoclonal antibody products under development in 5 different species.
And in addition to Zoetis, giants such as Lilan are also constantly devoting themselves to it. For example, on May 3, 2023, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publicly announced that it has provided a conditional license for the first canine parvovirus monoclonal antibody developed by Lilan. According to Relan, this was the first and only approved treatment that was proven to treat canine parvovirus at that time, laying a solid foundation for Relan in the field of monoclonal antibodies.
Interestingly, Nexvet, a monoclonal antibody pet drug R&D company acquired by Zoetis in 2017, is the old owner of Juergen Horn, CEO and co-founder of Invetx. Juergen Horn founded Nexvet in 2018 after it was acquired by Zoetis for $85 million. Today, Invetx's purchase price is $520 million.
On the whole, the pet industry observes that pet therapeutic monoclonal antibody therapy relies on its unique advantages and efficacy, and its market potential and space are very huge, which is worthy of domestic animal protection companies and pet pharmaceutical companies to take the lead in the layout.
Commenting on the acquisition, Juergen Horn, CEO and co-founder of Invetx, said: "We are delighted to be working with Decro, the world's leading pharmaceutical company in animal health. Our monoclonal antibody therapy pipeline for chronic severe disease in dogs and cats is highly complementary to De Cro's broad portfolio of specialty products for companion animals and accelerates De Cro's differentiated position in the veterinary health industry. ”
It is reported that in addition to the Invetx product line, Decro will also obtain the right to use the company's species-specific half-life extension platform, which can extend the duration of drug activity and extend the interval between treatments, providing greater convenience and improved compliance for veterinarians, pet owners and their pets. The half-life extension technology is part of Invetx's overall integrated platform, which includes advanced antibody discovery, optimization, development, and manufacturing to create best-in-class and differentiated veterinary biotherapeutics.
Jesper Nordengaard, CEO of Decro, said: "Invetx's ability to develop veterinary biotherapeutics with longer duration of action and longer dosing intervals represents a major innovation in animal health. Invetx is developing products with great potential to deepen our expertise in core therapeutic areas such as atopic dermatitis and osteoarthritis, enabling future synergistic product development, sales and marketing, and education efforts. ”
As for what will be the future dynamics of Decro in the field of pet therapeutic monoclonal antibody therapy, the pet industry observation will also continue to pay attention. If you are interested, please leave a message in the comment area below to discuss, or add a small editor to communicate on WeChat.