Ligand's OmniAb® therapeutic antibody platforms, OmniRat®, OmniFlic®, OmniMouse® and OmniChicken™, produce highly diversified, fully human antibody repertoires optimized in vivo for manufacturability, therapeutic efficacy and reduced immunogenicity - Naturally optimized human antibodies®. The single-license OmniAb offering is the industry's only with three species and multiple genetic backgrounds to address even the most challenging targets - 3 species, 1 license™.
OmniRat and OmniFlic are the only rats available for generation of mono- and bispecific human antibodies. OmniMouse and OmniChicken provide complementary murine and avian systems for the industry's widest epitope coverage.
OmniRat, OmniFlic and OmniMouse have complete freedom-to-operate and enable generation of antibodies specific for any target and indication globally, unlike some genetically engineered mice on the market. OmniChicken is available for all therapeutic targets except for a named few. To date, more than 30 biopharmaceutical companies and several universities have established unlimited OmniAb access. OmniAb antibodies have been generated against hundreds of targets and several are now in clinical development with many more pending. The uptake has been very strong since OmniRat was launched in 2012 and the other OmniAb platforms a couple of years later.
OmniRat, OmniFlic and OmniMouse were developed, validated and commercialized by Open Monoclonal Technology, Inc. ("OMT") until the company's acquisition by Ligand in January 2016. OMT created a novel rodent immunoglobulin gene knock-out technology and in 2009 reported generation of the world's first rats with completely inactivated immunoglobulin loci in the journal Science. Subsequent insertion of recombinant immunoglobulin loci resulted in OmniRat animals that were demonstrated to express a diverse repertoire of antibodies with fully human idiotypes as well as wildtype animals produce normal antibodies, another scientific-first. OMT subsequently used the same platform to develop OmniMouse and OmniFlic.
OmniChicken was developed, validated and commercialized by Crystal BioSciences, Inc. ("Crystal") until the company's acquisition by Ligand in October 2017. Crystal's scientists were the first to successfully reengineer a bird's immune system to efficiently produce antibodies with fully human idiotypes. Because chickens are birds with large phylogenetic distance from mammals such as rodents and humans, highly conserved therapeutic targets that may be challenging to raise antibodies against in mammals may be highly immunogenic in chicken.
OmniAb animals are bred on multiple genetic backgrounds by certified, domestic and international breeders. OmniAb antibody discovery services are available from Ligand-approved contract research organizations ("CROs") in the US, Europe and Asia. These services may offer the most cost-efficient way to generate and characterize therapeutic OmniAb antibodies. In the case of rodents, OmniAb licensees can may also procure animals directly from the breeders and conduct the antibody discovery internally.
