F-star, a clinical-stage company developing bispecific antibody immuno-oncology products, announced that it has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with AbbVie to research and develop bispecific antibodies in immuno-oncology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Immuno-oncology leverages the power of the body's natural immune response to fight cancer. Combination immunotherapies are showing particular promise as cancer therapies, even compared to the advances made with monoclonal antibodies. As the field develops further, bispecific antibodies have the potential for further improved potency, safety profile and cost efficiency compared to combination therapies.

"We are very excited to be working with AbbVie on these immuno-oncology programmes to develop new bispecific antibodies," said John Haurum, M.D., D.Phil., chief executive officer at F-star. "Bispecific antibodies are expected to be the cornerstone of the next generation of immuno-oncology products and this collaboration validates our technology as truly novel and differentiated in the space."

F-star's Modular Antibody Technology platform introduces an antigen binding site into the constant region of an antibody to create a so-called Fcab (an Fc-domain with antigen binding activity). In a combinatorial plug & play process, an Fcab can then be used to make many different bispecific antibodies (mAb2) using variable regions binding to second targets.

Under the collaboration agreement, F-star and AbbVie will create Fcabs against two immuno-oncology targets and generate several mAb2 drug development candidates from these Fcabs. The AbbVie research activities for this collaboration will be led by AbbVie Biotherapeutics.