Adimab said today it signed an antibody transfer and license with GlaxoSmithKline, while extending along similar lines an existing two-year-old antibody-based collaboration with Biogen Idec.

GSK has been granted a nonexclusive license to use Adimab’s antibody platform for discovery and optimization of all antibody formats, including bispecific antibodies. In return, GSK agreed to pay Adimab undisclosed “significant” up-front payments, as well as annual licensing fees, payments tied to R&D and commercial milestones, and royalties on a number of resulting commercialized therapeutic products.

GSK’s license includes access to Adimab’s platform and an antibody library that will be exclusive to that pharma giant. GSK has also secured an option to receive continued access to improvements to the Adimab antibody discovery platform, including access to subsequently developed libraries. The companies said Adimab’s platform is designed to shrink preclinical development timelines and failure rates associated with existing technologies, allowing GSK to advance protein-based drugs into clinical stages faster.

Over the past four years, Adimab has established partnerships with multiple biopharmas focused on IgG discovery, optimization, humanization, and/or bispecifics for therapeutic products.

Separately today, Adimab said it had expanded its collaboration with Biogen Idec by licensing to the biotech giant its antibody platform for use in Biogen Idec’s targeted therapeutic areas, which include multiple sclerosis and hemophilia. Biogen Idec will also receive its own custom human antibody library, and has secured an option for access to new antibody libraries and other improvements to the platform as they emerge.

“In order to identify the best antibody discovery technology to support these efforts, we engaged in a rigorous selection process and Adimab was the clear winner. We believe Adimab’s platform will help us to accelerate our drug discovery efforts as we search for the next generation of antibodies to treat neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases,” Werner Meier, Biogen Idec’s vp of biologics drug discovery, said in a statement.

Adimab and Biogen Idec launched their collaboration in August 2011, when Adimab agreed to use its discovery platform to identify fully human antibodies against two targets selected by Biogen Idec. The original agreement gave Biogen Idec the option to commercialize antibodies generated from the collaboration. In return, Biogen Idec agreed to pay Adimab undisclosed up-front payments, payments tied to preclinical and clinical milestones, and royalties on product sales.

In addition to Biogen Idec and GSK, Adimab’s partners include Merck, Roche, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Novo Nordisk, Human Genome Sciences, Gilead, and Kyowa Hakko Kirin.

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