A research-based healthcare company, Roche, has bought Adheron Therapeutics (“Adheron”).
Abzena, a life sciences Group providing services and technologies that enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, announced Friday the buy of Adheron.
Adheron was a privately held biotechnology company developing SDP051, a product that disrupts cell adhesion which can potentially be used to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and fibrotic disease. SDP051 was fully humanised using Abzena’s Composite Human Antibody™ technology.
According to Abzena, Adheron has completed a Phase I study of SDP051 and the product was shown to be safe and well-tolerated. Further development of SDP051 will be pursued by Roche.
SDP051 is one of Abzena’s portfolio of ten clinical-stage Composite Human Antibodies being developed by the Group’s partners. Abzena has a significant portfolio of licence and licence option agreements covering these products with many more being evaluated in research programmes and in preclinical development.
John Burt, CEO of Abzena said:
“The acquisition of Adheron by a major pharma company is great endorsement and validation of our Composite Human Antibody approach for creation of fully humanised therapeutic antibodies.
“This is also the third time we have seen the acquisition of a biotech company, pursuing products created through the application of our technology to improve their clinical profile.”