Technology expansion provides AbCellera with the ability to combine any two antibodies generated through its discovery platform to create full IgG bispecifics
Computational protein engineering expert Dr. Tim Jacobs joins AbCellera from Dualogics
VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AbCellera—AbCellera today announced the acquisition of the OrthoMab bispecific platform from Dualogics, LLC. (Dualogics). OrthoMab is a clinically validated platform that uses the most advanced computational and experimental protein engineering methods to create IgG-like bispecific antibodies from any two antibody sequences. By integrating OrthoMab into its existing technology stack, AbCellera provides the industry with a rapid and complete solution for generating tailored, stable and developable bispecific antibodies that meet the needs of the growing $140B biologics market.
Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement, AbCellera acquires full rights to the OrthoMab platform and Dualogics retains rights to develop existing internal assets and to complete existing partnership programs. Dr. Tim Jacobs, who led multiple bispecific antibody programs as CTO of Dualogics, joined AbCellera’s team in early August. Dr. Jacobs brings 10 years of protein engineering experience and has pioneered numerous computational and experimental strategies to design, modify, and enhance protein-based therapies.
“Bispecifics have opened new vistas for antibody therapeutics and are the fastest growing format in clinical development. Despite this early success, the technological barriers for successful development of bispecifics, including challenges in discovery, pair selection, protein engineering and manufacturing, are keeping many firms out,” said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., CEO of AbCellera. “By welcoming Tim to our team and OrthoMab into our stack, we have consolidated the talent and technologies needed to address these challenges. Through our partnerships, we’ll democratize access to leading bispecific technology across the industry, connecting science with technology to bring new therapies to the clinic. (Read more…)”
The addition of OrthoMab to AbCellera’s antibody discovery technology creates a unified bispecific platform that optimizes every step of the process, including:
- Sourcing diverse antibodies from any animal, including fully human monoclonal antibodies from humanized mice;
- Searching, decoding, and analyzing antibodies to identify the best combinations for achieving the desired functions;
- Engineering IgG-like bispecific antibodies that are tailored to maximize therapeutic effect while retaining optimal stability and developability profiles; and
- Assessing immunogenicity with in silico screening tools.
“AbCellera’s deep technical expertise and industry-leading discovery pipeline uniquely positions it to make the most of the OrthoMab platform,” said Tim Jacobs, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist at AbCellera. “I am extremely excited to be joining the AbCellera team and look forward to bringing best-in-class bispecific and protein-engineering capabilities to our partners.”
About OrthoMab
OrthoMab can combine any two existing antibody sequences to create bispecifics that are 99% identical to natural human antibodies. OrthoMab antibodies are produced using standard production and purification techniques and are available in flexible formats that can be tailored to specific target biology and mechanisms of action.
About AbCellera Biologics Inc.
AbCellera is a privately held biotech with a drug discovery platform that searches and analyzes natural immune systems to find antibodies that can be used to prevent and treat disease. AbCellera’s technology, which combines high-throughput microfluidics, hyper-scale data science, machine learning, bioinformatics, and genomics, identifies new first-in-class drugs and reduces the time it takes to bring treatments to the clinic. AbCellera’s partners include leading biotechnology companies, global health organizations, and many of the top 10 biopharmaceutical companies. For more information, visit www.abcellera.com.
Contacts
Jessica Yingling, Ph.D., media@abcellera.com, +1.236.521.6774 (Media)
Kevin Heyries, Ph.D., bd@abcellera.com, +1.604.559.9005 (Business Development)