Arsanis is a leader in the discovery and development of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for the targeted immunotherapy of serious infections.
Monoclonal antibodies have transformed the treatment of a wide range of diseases from cancer to immune system disorders. In infectious diseases, mAbs can target directly specific pathogens or their virulence mechanisms to avoid pathogenic processes in the infected individual, including resistant strains that give rise to serious infections. Unlike traditional antimicrobials that often target both pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms in a non-specific way (e.g., broadly killing all Gram-positive bacteria), Arsanis’ monoclonal antibodies selectively focus on specific pathogens and pathogenic processes. These targeted immunotherapies address critical infections while minimizing the collateral damage from antimicrobial overuse, resistance, and microbiome disruption.
They believe that the ability to selectively and safely target causative pathogens provides a new way of preventing and treating infections in high-risk patients, and can generate both clinical and health economic benefits to patients and providers, ushering in a new era in infection prevention and management.
Arsanis was co-founded in 2010 by three infectious disease and industry veterans:
Arsanis designs monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to address the unique features and virulence mechanisms of each targeted pathogen. To do so, they use multiple discovery approaches, combining their expertise in bacterial and viral pathogenesis, protein engineering and immunology, as well as their knowledge of preclinical and clinical development of anti-infective agents, and partnerships that provide access to leading scientific and discovery platforms.
They prioritize target selection for each of their programs based upon numerous factors, including unmet medical need, multi-drug resistant pathogens, diseases with significant morbidity and mortality, and the ability to address these needs via antibody-based approaches.
While other mAbs in development focus on single targets, Arsanis sets out to address the unique underlying biology of the selected pathogen for each of their programs. To address certain pathogens successfully, their mAbs must target all of the relevant biological targets that contribute to disease, ensuring a comprehensive approach to interrupting pathogenesis. For example, ASN100 targets six individual cytotoxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus that are critical to pneumonia pathogenesis.