MAB Designs

MAB Designs is a privately-held, pre-clinical stage biotech company developing conformation-selective antibodies. Its lead program is a humanized IgG1 antibody designed to uniquely block IL-6 trans-signaling while sparing classical signaling, a novel approach that could expand therapeutic applications beyond current IL-6 inhibitors. Founded and led by industry veterans, the company is internally funded, holds key patents, and operates with a lean structure while seeking partnerships to advance its pipeline.

Antibody discovery platform focused on generating conformation-selective antibodies that discriminate between different structural states (e.g., membrane-bound vs. shed) of target antigens.

MAB Designs competes in the crowded IL-6 inhibitor space against approved drugs (e.g., tocilizumab, sarilumab) and novel modalities, but its unique mechanism of sparing classical signaling is a key differentiator. More broadly, its platform competes with other companies developing conditionally active or conformation-specific biologics, a technically challenging but high-potential area of antibody engineering.