Canadian biotechnology firm AbCellera has signed a collaboration and licence agreement with Everest Medicines to advance new antibody therapies.
Under the multi-year agreement, Everest will obtain rights to develop and commercialise new antibodies which will be discovered through the new collaboration.
AbCellera will get research payments from Everest and is also eligible for clinical as well as commercial milestone payments along with royalties on net sales of products.
The partnership will fast-track Everest’s portfolio by discovering new medicines using AbCellera’s technology for up to ten targets, which will be selected by Everest, across various indications.
AbCellera stated that the initial programmes will focus on oncology targets.
The collaboration will use the company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology platform for antibody discovery.
AbCellera’s technology stack will be utilised for sourcing completely humanised antibodies from the Trianni Mouse, sourcing single domain antibodies from camelids and merging any two antibodies to generate native bispecifics by using the OrthoMab protein engineering platform, among others.
Everest Medicines chief scientific officer Jennifer Yang said: “This collaboration will allow us to gain access to AbCellera’s cutting edge, AI-powered antibody discovery platform, which will greatly accelerate and increase the efficiency of our internal discovery efforts.”
Additionally, the alliance will provide Everest with access to an operating system, which supports several antibody modalities to unlock new target classes as well as enable therapeutic access to new disease areas.
AbCellera CEO and president Carl Hansen said: “We are proud to partner with Everest as they build a robust pipeline of innovative medicines for patients in Asia and beyond.
“We believe our full-stack discovery engine, combined with Everest’s clinical development capabilities, creates synergy and the opportunity to speed the delivery of therapies to patients around the world.”