A lifelong, chronic condition with no cure available, T1D poses a significant daily burden on patients and their loved ones with few treatment options to address the underlying cause of disease.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Approximately 1.6 million people (children and adults) in the U.S. are living with this condition and data suggests that disease prevalence is growing. With no cure available, patients depend on injected or pumped insulin to regulate blood sugar and carry out metabolic activities that we all need for our bodies to function. Given the significant daily burden on patients and their caregivers/families to manage T1D symptoms and potentially severe complications, there’s great need for safe and effective treatment options that can target the underlying cause of disease and potentially modify its trajectory, without significant side effects.
SAB Biotherapeutics is developing its lead therapeutic candidate, SAB-142, as a disease-modifying treatment to potentially delay clinical onset and progression of T1D.
SAB is developing SAB-142 as a disease-modifying immunotherapy aimed at delaying the onset and progression of T1D. Unlike insulin or other approaches to symptom management, SAB-142 addresses the underlying cause of T1D: an over-reactive immune response that causes the immune system to mistakenly attack insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. As a result, SAB-142 can potentially help preserve beta cell function over time.
SAB-142 offers a clinically validated mode of action similar, and is designed to be recognized as a natural component of the human immune system.
SAB-142 is designed to function similarly to an already clinically validated mechanism of action that showed efficacy in T1D patients. Two clinical trials have shown that a single low dose of anti-thymocyte globulin (rATG, or Thymoglobulin), which are rabbit- derived antibodies, has demonstrated the ability to modulate the body’s immune response to help slow beta-cell destruction and preserve the ability of these cells to generate insulin, which the body needs to regulate blood sugar and carry out all human activities. At the same time, low dose of ATG does not cause side effects seen with immunosuppressants or high doses of ATG. Unfortunately, because Thymoglobulin is a rabbit-derived antibody, most humans treated with rATG develop serum sickness from exposure to the rabbit-derived antibody, presenting a significant safety risk to patients that also makes re-dosing of the drug riskier for patients.
SAB’s powerful immunoglobulin-based candidates can be produced sustainably and at scale without the need for human donors.
Thanks to SAB’s one-of-a-kind ability to generate fully-human antibodies in transgenic cows, SAB-142 offers a mode of action that is similar to rATG, but is designed as a fully-human antibody and is therefore recognized as a natural component of the immune system, without the risks associated with animal antibodies.