Through Strategic Collaboration with GenScript ProBio, Initium Therapeutics Plans to Utilize GenScript ProBio's Berkeley Lights Beacon Platform to Expand Their Antibody Drug Pipeline

On December 7, 2020, GenScript ProBio and Initium Therapeutics announced that Initium Therapeutics has launched a single B-cell based antibody development platform through collaboration with GenScript ProBio. Initium Therapeutics is a US biotechnology company, a spin-off from South Korean biotech company Tiumbio, seeking antibody-based therapeutics for patients who are suffering from unaddressed incurable and rare diseases. The strategic collaboration between the two companies will allow Initium Therapeutics to expand their antibody drug pipeline using GenScript ProBio's ultra-rapid, high-efficient Berkeley Lights Beacon platform. Furthermore, their partnership will potentially be extended to GenScript ProBio's cutting edge therapeutic antibody development platforms, including bispecific antibody platform, human antibody transgenic mouse and/or downstream therapeutic antibody development and manufacturing processes. Through this partnership, Initium Therapeutics expects to significantly accelerate their therapeutic antibody pipeline development.

"We are very pleased to announce that through the strategic collaboration with GenScript ProBio, we will expand our therapeutic antibody pipeline in fibrosis, immuno-oncology and hemophilia," said Dr. Huntaek Kim, CEO of Initium Therapeutics/TiumBio. "Initium Therapeutics was established to develop innovative antibody-based therapeutics focusing on unaddressed rare diseases. Our deep scientific and drug development expertise have allowed us to recognize new therapeutic targets in fibrosis, immuno-oncology and hemophilia, and I believe the partnership with GenScript ProBio will strengthen our therapeutic antibody platform and expand our antibody pipeline in more rapid and highly efficient ways."

"We are very glad to cooperate with Initium Therapeutics and help them expand their therapeutic antibody pipeline in fibrosis, immuno-oncology and hemophilia by utilizing GenScript ProBio's Berkeley Lights Beacon platform," said Dr. Brian Min, CEO of GenScript ProBio. "Our Single B cell screening platform dramatically expedites and enables unparalleled B cell diversity. We will continue fueling Initium's first-rate research capabilities and look forward to further collaboration to bring diverse treatment options to patients in rare diseases," he added.

About Initium therapeutics Inc.

Initium Therapeutics, an innovative biotechnology company, discovers and develops first-in-class therapeutic antibody drugs against rare diseases such as hemophilia and fibrosis. Established in June of 2020, as a spin-off of Tiumbio, a biotechnology company in South Korea, in order to expand its capability to antibody drug development platforms, Initium Therapeutics has a strong scientific expertise in target identification/validation in fibrosis, immuno-oncology and hemophilia.  Using its unique antibody development platforms of DNA immunization technology and AbCassette-High express system, Initium Therapeutics generates more diverse antigen-specific B cell repertoire and expedites screening of functional therapeutic antibodies, which mostly recognize very challenging small and complex conformational epitopes of membrane associated protein targets such as GPCRs (G protein coupled receptors), to treat unaddressed rare diseases.

About GenScript ProBio

GenScript ProBio is the bio-pharmaceutical CDMO segment of GenScript, proactively providing end-to-end service from drug discovery to commercialization with professional solutions and efficient processes to accelerate drug development for customers.

GenScript ProBio's innovative solutions for antibody drug development include antibody drug discovery, antibody engineering and antibody characterization. In terms of biologics development service, GenScript ProBio has built a regulatory-compliant platform, from stable cell line development to clinical manufacturing services, providing high quality material for IND and clinical trials. GenScript ProBio's total gene and cell therapy solution covers CMC of plasmid and virus for IND filing as well as clinical manufacturing and commercial manufacturing.

Toward the mission of "Innovation through Collaboration", GenScript ProBio is committed to helping customers significantly lower R&D costs and building a healthier future.