Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., a global leader of life science research and clinical diagnostic products, have announced the launch of a range of anti-idiotypic antibodies targeting the immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs: pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo).

Anti-pembrolizumab and anti-nivolumab antibodies are designed for use in bioanalytical assays to monitor the drug levels in cancer patients.

Pembrolizumab and nivolumab have recently been approved for the treatment of multiple cancers including non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and metastatic melanoma. Bio-Rad’s anti-pembrolizumab and anti-nivolumab antibodies inhibit the binding of the drugs to their target, programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), enabling the free drug to be detected.

“We are pleased to introduce three anti-pembrolizumab and five anti-nivolumab recombinant monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibodies, each of which are highly specific for pembrolizumab and nivolumab, respectively,” said Amanda Turner, Bio-Rad Product Manager, Life Science Group. “The antibodies are ideal for the development of pharmacokinetic bridging ELISAs as well as for use as reference standards in anti-drug antibody assays.”

Bio-Rad’s anti-idiotypic antibodies are generated using Human Combinatorial Antibody Library (HuCAL®) and CysDisplay®, a proprietary method of phage display with guided selection methods to obtain highly targeted reagents. The recombinant production method also ensures a consistent and secure supply.

The anti-pembrolizumab and anti-nivolumab antibodies are approved for in vitro research purposes and for commercial applications of in vitro testing services to support preclinical and clinical drug development and patient monitoring.