Lonza signed an agreement with ABL Bio focusing on bispecific antibodies for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. The collaboration is intended to help in the development and manufacturing of ABL Bio’s new bispecific antibody product.
Officials at Lonza say the company will provide ABL Bio with an end-to-end solution and an integrated offering to support its bispecific antibody candidate from early research to potential Investigational New Drug (IND) application. ABL Bio gains access to Lonza’s “DNA-to-IND” program, which is designed to support biotech companies in in the development of bispecific drug candidates.
“With the biologics pipeline evolving towards more complex protein formats, bi- and multi-specific molecules are a growing part of Lonza’s portfolio,” says Jean-Christophe Hyvert, president of biologics, Lonza. “This collaboration will provide ABL Bio with greater flexibility and speed on the path to commercialization.”
“As Lonza’s CDMO service is not limited to bispecific antibodies, ABL Bio will diversify its next-generation pipelines such as ADCs to increase growth potential and lead the antibody field,” adds Sanghoon Lee, CEO, ABL Bio.
The project began last month Lonza’s Biologics site in Slough (U.K.) and involves the use of Lonza’s GS Xceed® expression system which includes GS PiggyBac®, a transposon-based gene integration technology that can support the expression of bispecific and other difficult-to-express proteins, according to a Lonza spokesperson.
