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evolved to the field of immuno-oncology where the
aim is to kick-start the body’s own immune defense to eliminate tumors. ”Although there are pharmaceuticals on the market, this therapy is only in its infancy, which means that over the next few years there will be a revolution on how we look upon cancer therapy,” says Borrebaeck. “We are probably only at the beginning of this development because many new therapeutic antibodies, produced through phage display or other techniques, are currently in different stages of clinical trials,” adds Gustafsson. Claes Gustafsson The Laureates have now laid the foundation and have developed techniques that, in one way or the other are used by the majority of biopharma companies that develop biological drugs. Göran Forsberg, CEO of the Swedish company Cantargia, which specializes in antibody-based cancer treatments, agrees: “These technologies have been a part of our toolbox and will continue to be important in the future to further develop and broaden our project portfolio. Their contribution today is a pillar for the development of biopharmaceuticals.” ince then, phage display has become a powerful tool in drug discovery; it has been used to produce antibodies that may help to cure metastatic cancer, counteract toxins, and treat autoimmune diseases. “This Nobel Prize has opened up entirely new ways of producing biological pharmaceuticals. The importance for 46 NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG society and patients can hardly be overestimated; the entire industry of antibodybased pharmaceuticals had a turnover of more than $50–60 billion in 2018,” says Professor Carl Borrebaeck of the Department of Immunotechnology at Lund University and one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of antibody design. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has also indicated new possibilities within antibodybased immunotherapy, which now has Carl Borrebaeck founded the Swedish company Alligator Biosciences in 2001, which is currently developing antibodybased pharmaceuticals for cancer treatment. The corporation has probably been the most successful in this field in all of Nordic Europe. In 2017, Johnson & Johnson licensed the company’s immuneoncology agonistic CD40 antibody for more than $700 million. The company started a clinical phase I study in December with ATOR-1015: a drug candidate developed for tumordirected immunotherapy. The phase I study is a first-in-human dose-escalation study of up to 53 patients with advanced solid tumor disease at five different clinics across Sweden and Denmark. The primary aim will be to investigate the safety and tolerability of the drug and to identify the recommended dose for subsequent Phase II studies. NLS PHOTO JOHAN WINGBORG