Adimab Establishes New Partnership with Celgene for Discovery of Antibodies and Bispecifics for Next-Generation Therapeutics for Patients

May 07, 2015 Lebanon, NH PDF

Adimab, LLC, the technology leader in the discovery of fully human antibodies, today announced a new collaboration with Celgene, which follows an earlier 2013 agreement between the two parties. Under the terms of the new agreement, Adimab may generate novel common light chain (cLC) libraries with Celgene and use its proprietary platform to generate IgGs against multiple targets. Celgene will have the right to develop and commercialize therapeutic antibodies resulting from the collaboration.

“We are very pleased that Celgene has chosen to enter into a new discovery collaboration with Adimab,” said Tillman Gerngross, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Adimab. “We have over 30 partnerships, and almost every partner has either expanded their relationship or is in discussions to expand. Our ongoing partnering success is based on a few key elements: our industry-leading capabilities in antibody discovery, the consistency by which we deliver successful therapeutic programs, and our ability to create very productive relationships with our partner’s research teams.”

“We had high expectations for the initial collaboration, and are very pleased with its progress. We have also been impressed with Adimab’s ongoing technical development efforts, in particular Adimab’s ability to build highly diverse antibody libraries based on single common light chains,” said Ho Cho, Vice President of Celgene Biotherapeutics. “Celgene expects to develop a robust antibody-based clinical pipeline and we rely on innovative companies, such as Adimab, to make this happen.”

Under the terms of the new agreement Adimab may build novel common light chain libraries with Celgene. Adimab may use these common light chain libraries for the discovery and optimization of fully human antibodies against multiple targets. For each project, the agreement grants Celgene the right to research antibodies generated during the collaboration. Celgene will also have an option to exclusively license antibodies for development and commercialization. The initial term of the partnership is for two years, with an option to extend for an additional two years. Adimab will receive an undisclosed upfront payment, as well as license fees, clinical milestones and royalties on any product that is optioned under the agreement.

“Adimab is clearly becoming a leader in the generation of bispecific antibodies. Our partners value our ability to enhance almost any bispecific construct and Adimab’s common light chain libraries allow us to generate fully-human IgG-like bispecifics against any two targets, whether a partner already has an antibody with a given light chain or we discover the antibody de novo. Our cLC libraries exceed 10^10 in diversity, and enable the rapid discovery of highly specific and developable leads,” said Guy Van Meter, Vice President of Business Development at Adimab. “Every year we invest significantly in technology development to ensure that our discovery and optimization capabilities are second to none.”

Over the past 5+ years, Adimab has established funded discovery collaborations with over 30 companies. Adimab’s funded discovery partners include many leading pharmaceutical companies, such as Merck, Roche, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Gilead, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Sanofi and others. Adimab has also partnered with many mid-size and early stage venture backed companies, including Merrimack, Five Prime, Jounce, Innovent, Alector, Acceleron, Oncothyreon, Surface Oncology, Potenza, Arsanis and others. In addition, Adimab has transferred its platform for broad use to GSK, Biogen and Novo Nordisk.

About Adimab

Adimab’s integrated antibody discovery and optimization platform provides unprecedented speed from antigen to purified, full-length human lgGs. Adimab offers fundamental advantages by delivering diverse panels of therapeutically relevant antibodies and bispecifics that meet the most aggressive standards for affinity, epitope coverage, species cross-reactivity and developability. Adimab enables its partners to rapidly expand their biologics pipelines through a broad array of technology access arrangements.

Contact

Guy Van Meter
VP of Business Development, Adimab LLC
(603) 653-5775
guy.vanmeter@adimab.com