Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel protein therapeutics for cancer and inflammatory diseases, has signed a sponsored research collaboration agreement with Adimab, LLC, a leader in discovery of monoclonal and bispecific antibodies. Five Prime will provide multiple targets to Adimab for the discovery and optimization of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies initially focused in cancer immunotherapy.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Adimab will use its proprietary discovery and optimization platform to identify fully-human antibodies for Five Prime. This agreement will grant Five Prime the right to develop and commercialize antibodies generated during the collaboration for potential use as therapeutic products. While financial terms were not disclosed, Adimab will be eligible to receive potential research funding, option payments, milestone payments and royalties.

"Five Prime is in an ideal position to leverage our robust protein discovery platform and our oncology experience to advance new targets and molecules for cancer immunotherapy," said Lewis T "Rusty" Williams, MD, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Five Prime. "Adimab's ability to rapidly and effectively generate therapeutic monoclonal antibody candidates should allow us to move quickly from targets to products, as we expand our research and development efforts in this promising therapeutic area."

"We are pleased to be entering into this partnership with Five Prime," said Tillman Gerngross, co-founder and chief executive officer of Adimab. "Five Prime's productive high-throughput protein screening capabilities, in combination with our antibody discovery platform, have the potential to lead to the development of exciting new therapeutic agents and we look forward to collaborating in this effort."