Adimab, LLC, a leader in the discovery and optimisation of monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, announced the 50th therapeutic programme under its funded discovery partnerships. Adimab launched its antibody discovery and optimisation platform in the middle of 2009 and in less than five years has formed collaborations with more than 20 partners encompassing 50 therapeutic programmes. In addition, Adimab announced that new commercial licences have been exercised from the funded discovery partnerships with Arsanis Biosciences, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals and Mersana Therapeutics.

Under Adimab's funded discovery partnerships, Adimab applies its proprietary platform to generate therapeutic antibodies against any target of a partner’s interest. Adimab’s funded discovery partners include top pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Roche, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Biogen Idec, Novo Nordisk, Gilead, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Pfizer, Celgene and innovative biotechnology companies such as Arsanis, Jounce, Five Prime Therapeutics, Alector, Mersana, and others. Adimab typically receives various upfront payments, commercial licence fees, development milestones, and downstream milestones and royalties on product sales.

“Adimab's antibody discovery and optimisation platform is remarkable. This has been a highly successful partnership for Arsanis,” commented Eszter Nagy, President, CSO and co-founder of Arsanis Biosciences. “Our therapeutic program was technically quite challenging and aimed for antibodies binding to several target molecules that share limited homology, but Adimab's protein
engineering capabilities enabled us to generate exceptional lead candidates.”

“The epitope coverage generated by Adimab's platform is absolutely impressive,” said Donald A. Bergstrom, MD, PhD, CMO of Mersana. “In our collaborative efforts on multiple targets, Adimab's technology identified a never-before reported epitope, and provided us with multiple, diverse lead antibodies for our pre-clinical programme. We have selected an antibody for our target of interest which is an ideal fit with Mersana's strategy of highly customised, next generation ADCs.”

Adimab's novel and proprietary yeast-based platform has significant advantages over traditional antibody discovery approaches, such as phage display, yeast display, and in vivo approaches. The Adimab yeast has been extensively engineered with over 20 genetic modifications, which allow for large and diverse libraries, efficient transport of developable, whole IgGs and large bispecific molecules through the secretory pathway, and presentation on the cell surface. Adimab rapidly generates panels of leads across all possible epitopes and initial functional leads can undergo protein engineering to create the highest quality therapeutic programmes.

In light of achieving this milestone, Tillman Gerngross, chief executive officer
and co-founder of Adimab, observed, “Our industry is evolving, and companies are clearly seeking advantages for their programmes at the discovery stage in order to be competitive and justify the significant expenses associated with drug development. In addition, targets are getting more challenging, and therapeutic molecules are getting more complex. Rapid protein engineering is the solution.”

“We believe that partnerships with Adimab continue to be in high demand because our collaborators value the versatility and speed of our platform. Our partners are able to precisely define the quality and characteristics of their antibodies or bispecifics and our highly efficient protein engineering capabilities yield the desired candidates to provide them with a competitive advantage over others in the industry,” added Guy Van Meter, Adimab's Head of Business Development.

New Commercial Licences Several of Adimab's funded discovery partners have exercised options to obtain commercial licences for the antibodies generated under Adimab's Funded Discovery Programme.

Arsanis Biosciences has exercised a commercial licence to antibodies identified by Adimab to multiple undisclosed targets. Arsanis has exclusive development and commercialisation rights to such antibodies. This is the second commercial licence exercised by Arsanis.

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals has exercised a commercial licence toantibodies identified by Adimab to an undisclosed target. Merrimack has exclusive development and commercialisation rights to such antibodies. This is the second commercial licence exercised by Merrimack.

In addition, Mersana Therapeutics has exercised a commercial license to antibodies identified by Adimab to an undisclosed target. Mersana has exclusive development and commercialisation rights to such antibodies.This is the first commercial licence exercised by Mersana.