Adimab Spins Out Adagio Therapeutics to Develop Broadly Protective Coronavirus Antibodies
Adimab, LLC, the leading technology provider for the discovery and optimization of fully human monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, today announced that it has launched Adagio Therapeutics Inc., a new biotechnology company that will develop a portfolio of anti-coronavirus antibodies as both therapeutics and prophylactics against COVID-19 and future coronaviruses. Tillman Gerngross, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Adimab, will serve as CEO and Rene Russo, Pharm. D., will chair the board of directors.
Over the past eight years, Adimab’s Antibody Science group, led by Laura Walker, Ph.D., has built one of the premier B cell cloning technologies. Her team has published extensively on a number of viral pathogens including RSV, Ebola, Yellow Fever, Zika and most recently the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Wec A, et al., Science, 2020). All coronavirus-related Adimab assets have been transferred to Adagio Therapeutics Inc., which will focus on developing these molecules into effective therapeutic and prophylactic treatments.
“The current pandemic has reminded us of the threat that coronaviruses can pose to human society, and the question is not if, but when will the next outbreak occur,” said Tillman Gerngross, Ph.D., CEO of Adimab. “Using Adimab’s industry-leading engineering capabilities we have generated coronavirus antibodies that we believe have class-leading breadth against SARS-CoV-2 as well as other beta-coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-1. By engineering these antibodies for even greater potency, our goal is to produce prophylactic regimens that will provide complete protection for up to half a year and therapeutics that can effectively treat ongoing infections.”
The Adimab team developed and optimized antibodies that are broadly protective against SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1 and two additional circulating bat coronaviruses scientists are actively monitoring. The company believes these neutralizing antibodies will match the potency and coverage of competing SARS-CoV-2 antibody programs while also offering protection against additional pathogenic coronaviruses that have yet to emerge.
Adimab focuses its efforts on translating biological hypothesis from partners into developable drugs. In the infectious disease area, Adimab has independently established a broad network of academic collaborators and the antibodies arising from those efforts have been out licensed for drug development to other companies. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, Adimab was primarily focused on putting these assets into the hands of an action-oriented infectious disease development team, which ultimately resulted in the decision to spin out a separate company.
About Adimab
Since 2009, Adimab has partnered with over 75 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, generating more than 340 therapeutic programs, of which 40 have entered clinical trials. The Adimab technology has been transferred and implemented at Biogen, GSK, Lilly, Merck, Novo Nordisk, and Takeda. Funded discovery partners include leading pharmaceutical companies, such as Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Genentech, Gilead, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, and others. Adimab has also partnered with many early-stage venture-backed companies, including Amagma, Cullinan Oncology, Dragonfly, Pliant, Tizona, iTeos, and others, as well as mid- size public biopharmaceutical companies such as Acceleron, Alector, Five Prime, Innovent, Jounce, Mersana, Scholar Rock, Seattle Genetics, Surface Oncology, and others.
Adimab’s integrated antibody discovery and engineering platform provides unprecedented speed from antigen to purified, full-length human IgGs. Adimab offers fundamental advantages by delivering diverse panels of therapeutically relevant antibodies that meet the most demanding standards for affinity, epitope coverage, species cross-reactivity, and developability. Adimab enables its partners to rapidly expand their biologics pipelines through a broad spectrum of technology access arrangements.
Guy Van Meter
Chief Business Officer
Adimab, LLC.
(603) 653-5775
guy.vanmeter@adimab.com
Lindsay G. Deefholts
Scient Public Relations
(416) 301-7966
ldeefholts@scientpr.com