Abzena Announces New Fully Integrated Developability and Optimization Service to Improve Lead Selection and De-risk Biologic Cell Line Development

March 21, 2019 Off By BusinessWire

CAMBRIDGE, England–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Abzena, the leading biologics target to GMP partner research
organisation (PRO), announced its Cambridge UK site has brought together
its extensive discovery, immunogenicity assessment, protein engineering,
formulation, bioassay and analytical expertise to launch a
developability assessment and optimization service to assist customers
in selecting and developing the best lead candidate to take forward for
manufacture.

The new Developability Service reduces the time, risk and cost required
to take multiple lead candidates through cell line development and
manufacturing. Biologics have potential liabilities for safety,
functionality, stability and scalability and when these issues are
identified early alternate leads can be selected, liabilities engineered
out or measures can be taken to mitigate risk. The Developability
Service also enables the selection of drug candidates most aligned with
the target product profile by evaluating a range of functionality and
specificity readouts.

The service is adapted to the stage of development and the properties of
the molecule and provided on a dedicated FTE basis, ensuring flexibility
and depth of exposure to the lead candidates. Customers can then
seamlessly transition the program into cell line development using
Abzena’s proprietary cell line.

Dr Campbell Bunce, Abzena’s SVP of Scientific Operations and
Cambridge UK site head commented: “Abzena is excited to combine
solutions where we have deep expertise and resource into a single
low-cost Developability Service. Our customers rely on our ability to
significantly shorten timelines, derisk lead optimization and improve
clinical outcomes. Our Developability Service is provided on an FTE
basis and typically requires only a few months per project to
evaluate several drug candidates. We are delighted to add this service
to our existing integrated discovery, cell line development, process
development and biologics GMP manufacturing capabilities.”

Dr. Jonathan Goldman MD, Abzena CEO added: Abzena is the only
PRO dedicated to target to GMP for large molecules, ADCs and complex
small molecules. We are delighted to announce this expansion of our
integrated capabilities. Our goal is to assist customers in translating
complex scientific concepts to safe and effective clinical products and
rapidly bring these to patients in need.”

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About Abzena

Abzena provides the most complete set of solutions in integrated early
discovery to mid-phase biotherapeutic and ADC drug development services
in the pharmaceutical industry. The company maintains resources around
the world, with facilities in the US and UK. Abzena is partnered with
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, one of the world’s leading private
equity investors. For more information, please see www.abzena.com.

Abzena’s Developability assessment runs parallel to the drug development
pathway with high-throughput in silico analysis of drug candidates
following antibody discovery, moving to comprehensive physical property,
formulation, in vitro and in vivo assessments allowing shortlisting of
candidates for cell line development and manufacture.