Antibody Start-Ups: Riding the Big Pharma Acquisition Wave

It's a good time to be an antibody company. As almost all the Big Pharma fall over each other to grab whatever antibody assets they can, investors backing still-independent firms are rubbing their hands in glee. One of the companies we profile this month claims it has found a novel route around the one major drawback to antibody development--the dreaded IP blackout. But whatever their trump card-whether they're improving existing antibodies, like Anaptys and 4-antibody, or, like f-star, creating antibody fragments, interest from strategic partners is guaranteed.