ABL Bio Inc.- GenScript Biotech Corp Bispecific Antibody Strategic Partnership Agreement Ceremony

NANJING, China and SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- GenScript Biologics, a world leading bio-pharmaceutical CDMO company, announced today that it entered into an agreement with ABL Bio Inc., a South Korean biotech company dedicated to therapeutics for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. The parties have reached a partnership for two bispecific antibody programs.

According to the license agreement, GenScript will grant a sublicense to ABL Bio to use sdAb (single-domain antibody), mAb (monoclonal antibody) targeting tumor antigens, and its Single-Domain Antibody fused to Monoclonal Ab (SMAB) Platform to develop several bispecific antibody molecules. ABL Bio will appoint GenScript as the exclusive supplier of CDMO services for IND-enabling studies and clinical material manufacturing so as to accelerate the development of the bispecific antibody under the licensing agreement. GenScript will consistently provide support and services for the programs. GenScript will receive an upfront with milestone payments, and royalty. The parties will make full use of their own advantages and resources to further expand ABL Bio's bispecific antibody development pipelines and strengthen ABL Bio's global leading position in cancer research.

"We are glad to cooperate with GenScript. GenScript is growing fast in recent years and has facilitated several companies to make achievements in antibody drug research," said Dr. Sang Hoon Lee, CEO of ABL Bio at the signing ceremony, "We expect the outstanding druggability and streamlined production processes of GenScript's SMAB platform to accelerate the development of novel immunotherapy and the launch of new drugs. This partnership will further expand our bispecific antibody development pipelines, and help us ascend to a leader in therapeutics for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative diseases."

"We are excited about this collaboration with ABL Bio, an experienced company in the bispecific antibody field, which manifests that GenScript's biologics R&D services have been increasingly recognized by global well-known enterprises," Dr. Brian Min, CEO of GenScript Biologics, said, "GenScript has extensive experience and powerful teams in biologics R&D. We would like to cooperate with more well-positioned enterprises like ABL Bio, utilize our own powerful R&D advantages, and accelerate the development of novel antibody drugs."

About GenScript's SMAB Platform

Bispecific antibodies are artificially engineered antibodies capable of binding with two different epitopes of an antigen. Compared with mAb, they are proven by many studies to have better potency and improved safety. Among various bispecific antibody platforms, GenScript's SMAB Platform is highly distinctive in that it creates such hybrids by fusing sdAb to mAb, the most natural bispecific antibodies in the world that require no sequence mutation and minimum engineering. Being natural mitigates many problems with traditional bispecific antibody platforms, including immunogenicity risks, developability issues and mass production difficulties. It would take only 3-5 months for SMAB screening and evaluation and 14-15 months for preclinical CMC development, which is highly efficient and produces deliverables with equivalent developability as monoclonal antibodies. In addition, the flexibility of sdAb enables SMAB to bind with hidden epitopes such as enzymes and ionic pathways, and allows an easy engineering of multivalent molecules, thus significantly boosting its application value.

About ABL Bio

ABL Bio Inc. (298380:KQ) is a South Korean biotechnology company developing antibody therapeutics for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. Founded in 2016, ABL Bio successfully raised close to $170 million USD in 3 years and listed in Korean stock exchange (KOSDAQ) in December, 2018. ABL001, a bispecific antibody (BsAb) targeting VEGF and DLL4 is currently in Phase 1 clinical trial for oncology. ABL Bio is also actively developing multiple 4-1BB based T cell engaging bispecific antibodies and several innovative First-in-Class and Best-in-Class bispecific antibody-based immunotherapies. In the neurodegenerative disorder space, ABL Bio is harnessing its BsAb expertise to develop next-generation BsAbs designed to maximize blood–brain barrier (BBB) penetrance and therapeutic efficacy. The most advanced molecule is ABL301, an α-synuclein-targeting BsAb that penetrates the BBB via a receptor-mediated transcytosis (RMT) and is in development for Parkinson's disease (PD). For more information, check out www.ablbio.com.

About GenScript Biologics 

GenScript Biologics is a world leading bio-pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), with extensive services in gene synthesis, peptide synthesis, antibody development, protein expression and custom biological reagents as well as providing a one-stop biological drug research and development platform. GenScript's one-stop antibody drug development solutions include antibody drug discovery (hybridoma, phage display, full human and bispecific antibodies technologies), antibody engineering (antibody humanization, evaluation and optimization of drug compounds and affinity maturation) and other services. GenScript's total cell therapy solution covers IND preparation as well as clinical sample and commercial production. Process development controls ensure compliance, data integrity ensures traceability, and all test deviations are strictly studied and documented. With the principle of "providing the best-in-class quality to and serving for the interests of customers", GenScript is committed to helping customers shorten the timeline for biological drugs from development to clinical use, significantly cutting the R&D costs, accelerating the commercialization of medicines, and building a healthy future while making contributions to the development of the pharmaceutical industry under the Made in China 2025 plan.

SOURCE GenScript Biotech Corp