Highlights of Antibody Engineering and Therapeutics 2019 in San Diego, USA: Bispecific Antibody Design and Clinical Applications

Although there are only two bispecific antibody (bsAb) drugs in the market, around 100 bsAb drug candidates are in clinical development. bsAbs have gained fast growing investment and attractions from the biopharmaceutical industry and academia in recent years. Antibody Engineering and Therapeutics 2019 (AET 2019) was held in San Diego, USA, from 9 to 13 December 2019. This year’s AET certainly reflected the trend. In this report, we selected 11 presentations from AET 2019 to highlight bsAbs’ design and their potentials in cancer therapy. These presentations have discussed emerging strategies to improve bispecific antibody drugs in efficacy, safety and production. As compared to CAR-Ts, some T cell-redirecting bsAbs may potentially achieve comparable efficacies with less side effects and toxicities, as evidenced with both preclinical and clinical data reviewed at the conference. Several approaches to reduce T cell engagers’ toxicities including conditionally active bsAbs and IgM-based bsAbs were also presented and discussed at the conference. For the first time, The Antibody Society and the Chinese Antibody Society jointly held a special session at the AET.