Adimab, Inc, an emerging leader in the discovery of fully human antibodies, announced the launch of a unique human antibody discovery platform based on the first fully synthetic human pre-immune IgG repertoire. Adimab's yeast-based platform offers unprecedented epitope coverage and allows for the discovery of high affinity full length human IgGs in extremely rapid timeframes. In addition, Adimab announced two major research collaborations.

Adimab and Merck have entered into a collaboration whereby Adimab will use its proprietary yeast-based antibody discovery platform to identify fully human antibodies against targets selected by Merck. The agreement grants Merck the right to commercialize antibodies generated from the collaboration as therapeutic products.

In a separate deal, Adimab and Roche have initiated a research programme whereby Adimab will use its proprietary yeast-based antibody discovery platform to identify fully human antibodies against a target selected by Roche. The agreement allows Roche the right to commercialize antibodies generated from the collaboration as therapeutic and diagnostic products.

Under the terms of the agreements, Adimab will receive various upfront payments, preclinical milestones and licensing fees. In addition, Adimab is eligible to receive clinical development milestones, commercial milestones and royalties on therapeutic and diagnostic product sales.

"Adimab has developed a disruptive technology in the antibody discovery space," said Tillman Gerngross, Adimab's CEO and co-founder. "The speed, robustness and diversity of our platform will provide drug developers with meaningful advantages over current discovery technologies and we believe this approach has the potential to become a new standard in the industry." "The execution of discovery agreements with two of the top ten pharmaceutical companies based on Adimab's platform underscores the demand for novel technical approaches and more flexible business solutions in antibody discovery," stated Guy van Meter, senior director of Business Development. "We are continuing to get significant traction with potential collaborators and expect the partnering momentum to continue in 2009."

Adimab's integrated antibody discovery and optimization platform provides unprecedented speed from antigen to purified, full-length human IgGs.