WuXi Biologics ("WuXi Bio") (2269.HK), a leading global open-access biologics technology platform company offering end-to-end solutions for biologics discovery, development and manufacturing, and ABL Bio Corporation ("ABL Bio") (298380.KS), a South Korean biotechnology company developing antibody therapeutics for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative diseases, announced the expansion of their strategic partnership for novel bispecific antibodies and immune-oncology program.
Under the terms of the agreements, ABL Bio has rights to use WuXi Biologics' proprietary discovery platforms, including WuXiBody™ and CD3 platform, to research, develop and commercialize multiple bispecific antibodies, as well as rights to develop new bispecific antibodies targeting novel immune check point receptor. WuXi Biologics will receive an upfront payment as well as development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of about $220 million, and will be entitled to royalties based on global sales of these programs.
In November 2018, ABL Bio and WuXi Biologics announced an exclusive development and clinical manufacturing partnership for multiple bispecific antibodies. This announcement today further strengthens the breadth and depth of the companies' collaboration.
"We are quite excited about this collaboration with WuXi Biologics," said Dr. Sang Hoon Lee, CEO of ABL Bio. "I believe that the partnership with WuXi Biologics will bring a synergy for developing our bispecific antibody pipelines. It will help us to develop novel immune-oncology therapies on different bispecific platforms and lead us to step up to be a global top-tier biotechnology company for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative disease treatment."
"We are glad to expand the partnership with ABL Bio, which manifests that WuXi Biologics has been well recognized as a global leader in the development and manufacturing of next-generation biologics such as bispecific antibodies. This is the 7th partnership we signed since we globally launched this exciting platform last August," said Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics. "Quick adoption of our WuXiBody™ bispecific platform further validates that this proprietary platform addresses most technical limitations of current bispecific platforms and can potentially tremendously reduce the cost of making these biologics. WuXi Biologics will continue to invest in developing globally leading next-generation technologies to accelerate and transform biologics discovery, development and manufacturing. With globally recognized technical capabilities and unparalleled capacities, we are transforming how biologics are developed in the global setting."
About WuXiBody™
WuXiBody™, a proprietary bispecific antibody platform of WuXi Biologics, is potentially the Best-in-Class bispecific platform in the field. It can effectively break through the CMC barriers of bispecific antibodies development, expedite the process by 6-18 months and significantly reduce manufacturing cost, a severe limitation of other current bispecific platforms. WuXiBody™ bispecifics have achieved 16g/L in cell culture titer. WuXiBody™ Platform enables almost any mAb sequence pairs to be assembled into bispecific constructs. They are characterized as low immunogenicity, long in vivo half-life like mAbs and excellent stability. WuXiBody™ Platform also owns its unique structural flexibility, which makes it convenient to build various formats with different valency (2, 3 or 4 binding sites) to meet the requirements of different bispecific targets.
About ABL Bio
ABL Bio (298380:KS) is a South Korean biotechnology company developing antibody therapeutics for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. Founded in 2016, ABL Bio successfully raised close to $170 million USD in 3 years and listed in Korean stock exchange (KOSDAQ) in December, 2018. ABL001, a bispecific antibody (BsAb) targeting VEGF and DLL4 is currently in Phase 1 clinical trial for oncology. ABL Bio is also actively developing multiple 4-1BB based T cell engaging bispecific antibodies and several innovative First-in-Class and Best-in-Class bispecific antibody-based immunotherapies. In the neurodegenerative disorder space, ABL Bio is harnessing its BsAb expertise to develop next-generation BsAbs designed to maximize blood–brain barrier (BBB) penetrance and therapeutic efficacy. The most advanced molecule is ABL301, an α-synuclein-targeting BsAb that penetrates the BBB via a receptor-mediated transcytosis (RMT) and is in development for Parkinson’s disease (PD).
About WuXi Biologics
WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK), a Hong Kong, S.A.R., China-listed company, is the only open-access biologics technology platform in the world offering end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing. Our company history and achievements demonstrate our commitment to providing a truly ONE-stop service offering and value proposition to our global clients. As of June 30, 2018, there were a total of 187 integrated projects, including 98 projects in pre-clinical development stage, 78 projects in early-phase (phase I and II) clinical development, 10 projects in late-phase (phase III) development and 1 project in commercial manufacturing. With total estimated capacity of biopharmaceutical production planned in China, Ireland, Singapore and US reaching 220,000 liters by 2021, we will provide our biomanufacturing partners with a robust and premier-quality global supply chain network.
Source: Wuxi Biologics
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