HUNTSVILLE – Scientists at Score Pharma, a therapeutics company on the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology campus, believe they’ve found a way to make existing antibody therapies for cancer significantly more potent.

According to a news release, through a small structural change during the upstream biologics process for existing antibody therapeutics, the cancer cell-killing mechanism of that specific therapeutic is greatly improved.

“We couldn’t be happier with the results we’re seeing in our early studies,” said Jennifer Riggs-Sauthier, Ph.D., chief development officer & vice president of chemistry at Score Pharma. “Cancer takes the lives of about 27,000 people every day. That’s one cancer death every three seconds. This advancement brings us one step closer to the clinic – and ultimately, to helping patients benefit from stronger, more effective antibody therapies.”

Through library screening, Score said it has identified tens of thousands of potential modulators for its patented (Japan) and patent-pending (US, EU) process technology that will act as the duplicatable platform for improvement of commercially available therapies.

Score said it will conduct scientific confirmation studies at Southern Research in Birmingham, targeting its first clinical application in HER2-positive breast cancer.