Collaborating in Innovative Medical R&D to combat the pandemic, Alphamab Oncology and Institut Pasteur Shanghai Announce Partnership to Co-develop COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody

SUZHOU, China, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alphamab Oncology (stock code: 9966 HK) announced that Jiangsu Alphamab Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. ("Jiangsu Alphamab"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, has entered a partnership agreement with Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences ("Institut Pasteur Shanghai") on the co-development, manufacturing and commercialization of therapeutic antibody for Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide.

According to a report on June 8, more than 7.10 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 infection worldwide, but there are still no vaccines or medicines available for prevention or treatment. Neutralizing antibody targeting proteins on the surface of virus can effectively inhibit the virus' binding and entry into target cells to block infection, therefore it can be considered to be useful to protect or treat patients with COVID-19 infection. Among various potential solutions, the optimized mixed antibodies solution not only amplify the therapeutic effect due to synergistic effect, but also can solve the virus escaping issue due to COVID-19 virus' mutation, and minimizes the risk of "Antibody-dependent enhancement".

This cooperation will fully leverage not only Institut Pasteur Shanghai 's prowess in research and development, and prior research findings in the area of infectious diseases, but also Alphamab Oncology's strong R&D and its proprietary Mixed Antibodies Platform, to develop COVID-19 neutralizing antibody with good safety and high neutralizing activity, complete clinical trials soon to provide antibody treatment options, effectively improve the prevention capabilities, reduce the mortality rate, and contribute to disease prevention and control for China and the world. Meanwhile, Pasteur's global R&D network could also help expedite the completion of clinical trial.

According to the agreement, Alphamab Oncology and Institut Pasteur Shanghai will form a joint project team. Alphamab Oncology is responsible for providing its proprietary Mixed Antibodies Platform, constructing humanized antibodies and recombinant engineered cell lines, carrying out PK study, clinical trials, manufacturing, and commercialization. Institut Pasteur Shanghai is responsible for the comprehensive analysis of neutralizing activity of COVID-19 antibodies.

Dr. Ting Xu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Alphamab Oncology commented, "Since the end of 2019, COVID-19 has ravaged the world and has become the major global public health issue. We plan to partner with Institut Pasteur Shanghai by leveraging our proprietary antibody technology platform, extensive experiences in antibody drug R&D and established manufacturing platform to accelerate the development of COVID-19 antibodies to combat COVID-19, prevent subsequent outbreaks and contribute to the further prevention and control of this epidemic."

Dr. Hong Tang, Director General and Legal Representative of Institut Pasteur Shanghai commented, "Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the Institut Pasteur Shanghai has been focusing on R&D Projects including virus detection and origin tracing, antibody drug and vaccine, and has achieved quite a few progress. This partnership with Alphamab Oncology on COVID-19 neutralizing antibody drug has demonstrated not only the innovation capability of our research and development team, but also a result of the reform of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the capable platform of Shanghai Science and Innovation Center. Our institute will collaborate with industry players to accelerate drug development and contribute to the prevention and control of pandemic as soon as possible."

About Alphamab Oncology

Alphamab Oncology is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on innovative biologics medicine for oncology. On December 12, 2019, the Company was listed in the mainboard of Hong Kong Stock Exchange with stock code 9966.

Alphamab has fully integrated proprietary biologics platforms in bi-specifics and protein engineering. Its highly differentiated in-house pipeline consists of eight anti-cancer drug candidates, four of which have advanced into Phase I – III clinical development phases in China, US and Japan.

The Company also has state-of-the-art manufacturing capability designed and built to meet NMPA and EU/FDA's cGMP standards.

Alphamab Oncology is committed to further develop its robust pipeline in oncology/immunology to benefit patients around the world. Visit http://www.alphamabonc.com for more information.

About Institut Pasteur Shanghai

Institut Pasteur of Shanghai of Chinese Academy of Sciences was established in October 11, 2004. It is the only national research institute dedicated to the basic research and development of relevant technologies for human infectious diseases within the Academy. The Institute focuses on key scientific subject such as the fundamental laws of pathogenic microorganisms' activities, and the pathogenic mechanism of major infectious diseases, to promotes the innovation and development of etiology, immunology and vaccinology to solve key issues such as the discovery of pathogen and biological treatment (antibodies, vaccines, etc. ), with a focus on providing scientific and technological support and solutions for public health and biosecurity of China. It is actively participating the building of Shanghai Science and Innovation Center. The infectious diseases' prevention and treatment platform, a functional platform which it is responsible for, will provide solid scientific support for the prevention and control of infectious diseases in Shanghai and Yangtze River Delta Region in China.

Alphamab Oncology Forward-Looking Statements

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SOURCE Alphamab Oncology