Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., a global leader of life science research and clinical diagnostic products, today announced the launch of a range of recombinant monoclonal anti-ranibizumab antibodies that are highly specific for the monoclonal antibody drug ranibizumab (Lucentis) or the complex of ranibizumab with its target, vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A).

Ranibizumab is used for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common form of age-related vision loss, and for macular edema and diabetic retinopathy. The anti-ranibizumab antibodies are inhibitory, non-inhibitory, and drug-target complex specific antibodies and designed for use in pharmacokinetic (PK) and immunogenicity assays for ranibizumab and biosimilars.

“We are excited to introduce four anti-ranibizumab antibodies that are highly specific for ranibizumab or the ranibizumab-VEGF-A complex,” said Amanda Turner, Bio-Rad Product Manager, Life Science Group. “Ranibizumab is a Fab fragment drug and is present at very low levels in patient samples, which presents challenges for PK assay design and sensitivity. The high affinity ranibizumab-VEGF complex specific antibody is unique to Bio-Rad and overcomes those challenges by enabling the development of a PK antigen capture assay to measure free drug.”

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-ranibizumab antibodies are approved for in vitro research and for commercial applications of in vitro testing services that support preclinical and clinical drug and biosimilar development and patient monitoring.