Adimab, LLC, the global leader in the discovery and optimization of fully human monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, and Innovent Biologics, a premier biotechnology company in Suzhou, China, announced a significant expansion of their existing collaboration. Over three years, Adimab will use its proprietary, yeast-based discovery platform to generate IgGs or bispecifics for development as therapeutic products for multiple targets chosen by Innovent. Innovent will retain worldwide commercial rights to these therapeutic products.

"We know from our previous projects that Adimab's reputation as the leading protein engineering company in the industry is well deserved. An antibody that came out of our relationship with Adimab is part of our recent partnership with Eli Lilly and Company," said Michael Yu, chief executive officer and co-founder of Innovent. "Gaining broader access to Adimab was very important to achieving our long-term goals, so we are very pleased to have expanded our relationship."

"Innovent has been a great partner," said Tillman Gerngross, chief executive officer and co-founder of Adimab. "They are quickly emerging as a substantial Asian biotech company and their leadership has demonstrated the ability to build an attractive pipeline across multiple disease areas. We are confident that with our protein engineering platform, Innovent will rapidly develop and move many more product candidates into clinical trials."

This most recent agreement further expands an earlier relationship that began in 2013.

Adimab’s funded discovery partners include many leading pharmaceutical companies, such as Merck, Novo Nordisk, Biogen, GSK, Roche, Novartis, Lilly, Genentech, Celgene, Gilead, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Sanofi and others. Adimab has also partnered with many smaller companies, such as Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Mersana, Five Prime and others, as well as academic institutions such as Memorial Sloan Kettering and MD Anderson. In addition, the Adimab antibody discovery and optimization platform and custom antibody libraries have been transferred to Merck, Novo Nordisk, Biogen and GSK for internal use.