Collaboration covers three targets and could be worth more than $300 million to Symphogen.
Symphogen could earn over $300 million through a discovery and development deal with Genentech. Symphogen will use its Symplex antibody-discovery platform to identify compounds against three infectious disease targets.
Under the global strategic collaboration, Genentech will make an upfront payment as well as an equity investment. The firm will also fund R&D activities. Additionally, Symphogen is eligible to receive milestone fees upon the success of certain research and development goals.
Genentech will obtain an exclusive, worldwide license to compounds developed through this agreement. If a drug is commercialized, Symphogen will earn royalties.
Genentech will also gain access to Symphogen’s Sympress™ technology to produce recombinant polyclonal antibodies. It uses a mammalian-expression platform to enable the manufacturing of target-specific, fully human recombinant polyclonal antibodies.
The Symplex process begins by isolating B lymphocytes from naturally immune human donors displaying a high number of antibodies against a particular target antigen. It enables the exact identity of the original donor antibody repertoire to be maintained and mimics the natural human immune response, according to Symphogen.