Drug Development and Delivery: GigaGen CEO Dave Johnson discusses Why Understanding Immune Dysregulation is the Key to Drug Development

Antibodies have been used since the late 1980s as therapies to treat serious diseases, and demand is soaring to new heights today. However, conventional antibody drug discovery technologies are labor-intensive and slow. Pharmaceutical companies select drug candidates from just a small fraction of the antibodies that exist in a natural immune repertoire and have limited information on which candidates are the most promising. Additionally, identification and selection of drug targets remain an arduous process because conventional approaches to studying the immune system are not comprehensive. GigaGen Inc., based in South San Francisco, CA, has developed a unique insight into immune dysregulation through a proprietary technology known as Surge – a platform that quickly characterizes every cell in complex immune systems so that natural immune repertoires can be translated into medical treatments. The technology powers selection of drug targets, identification of drug candidates, and preclinical assessment of efficacy. GigaGen is using their insight into how the immune system functions to discover and develop drugs that solve disorders of immune dysregulation, including cancer and immune deficiency.

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