AnaptysBio Announces Antibody Discovery Partnership With Gilead Sciences

SAN DIEGO, May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- AnaptysBio, Inc., a privately-held therapeutic antibody company, today announced an antibody discovery partnership with Gilead Sciences, Inc. to develop novel antibody therapeutics.

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Under this partnership, antibodies generated by AnaptysBio using its proprietary SHM-XEL platform will be transferred to Gilead for worldwide development and commercialization. Gilead has paid an upfront fee upon signature of the partnership and will continue to provide research funding to AnaptysBio through the antibody generation process. AnaptysBio is due to receive development milestone payments from Gilead, as well as royalties upon sales of each product derived from the partnership.

"Our pharma partners continue to recognize the unique advantages of AnaptysBio's SHM-XEL antibody generation platform," said Hamza Suria, AnaptysBio's president and chief executive officer. "We look forward to working with Gilead in the discovery of novel antibodies for the treatment of human disease."

About AnaptysBio

Founded in 2005, AnaptysBio, Inc. is a privately-held company focused on the generation of antibody therapeutics, and the leader in the use of somatic hypermutation (SHM) for antibody discovery and optimization. SHM is the body's natural process for generating potent antibodies. AnaptysBio's proprietary SHM-XEL platform, which couples fully human antibody libraries with in vitro somatic hypermutation (SHM) in mammalian cells to generate high affinity lead candidates, replicates key features of the human immune system and overcomes limitations of prior antibody technologies. By harnessing the natural mechanism of antibody maturation under controlled conditions, SHM-XEL allows for the selection of optimal antibody properties such as high affinity, functionality, cross-reactivity and epitope diversity. AnaptysBio has established broad intellectual property around the use of SHM and is currently building a pipeline of novel therapeutic antibody product candidates. Major investors in AnaptysBio include founding investor Avalon Ventures, as well as Alloy Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, and Novo A/S. For more information, visit www.anaptysbio.com.

SOURCE AnaptysBio, Inc.