Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Transcript of XOMA’s presentation at Credit Suisse today; here’s the interesting part:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1424611-xoma-management-presents-at-credit-suisse-2013-antibody-day-transcript?part=single

[Gevokizumab] is a very high affinity humanized monoclonal antibody that’s directed against IL-1 beta… And unlike many of the other monoclonal antibodies and also modulators of IL-1 beta signaling, this particular molecule binds to an allosteric binding site as opposed to orthosteric binding site. That is: it binds to a place that’s not the business end of the molecule.

This provides a number of theoretical and actual advantages because by binding to an allosteric site, it still allows ligand receptor interactions which is important from a number of perspectives. One, when you’re craving an antibody that blocks 100% of a circulating substance that the body needs for natural immunity, you’re essentially trading one disease for another. …you start off with too much of a substance and the molecule actually creates not enough.

So by our approach of allosteric modulation, we are allowing some ligand receptor interaction that still allows the body to mount a response if there is an overwhelming invasion such as infection or tumor cells. So we think the strategy for creating these can theoretically lead to molecules with better therapeutic index and obviously time will tell us we expand our database of patients that are being treated.