COULD the humble llama be big pharma's secret weapon to discovering new drugs?
Scientists have uncovered the potential of the animals' antibodies to thwart multiple diseases, according to a report in sci-tech title Phys.org.
Drug developers are now ploughing billions of dollars into a field that may yield a fresh generation of life-changing medicines, which includes some for hard-to-treat conditions such as cancer, nerve pain and dermal ailments.
The llamas being studied, which are housed in a field in Belgium, receive injections to trigger the production of their nanobodies, which scientists praise as easy to produce, manipulate and engineer.
Llamas are one of only a few animals to produce these tiny protein nanobodies.
"They have this Lego-like nature that you can just snap together any way you want to, which is really unique," said Mark Lappe, chief executive of biopharmaceutical firm Inhibrx Biosciences.
"If you try to do that with regular antibodies, it's wildly complex," he added.
The field is burgeoning, with a drug for a rare autoimmune blood disorder recently becoming the first medicine developed using llamas.
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