CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom & SHANGHAI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kymab, a leading human monoclonal antibody biopharmaceutical company, and EpimAb Biotherapeutics, an emerging biopharmaceutical company specializing in bispecific antibodies, today announced a cross-licensing and development agreement to develop bispecific therapeutic antibodies against multiple targets. The parties will focus their efforts on immuno-oncology and will combine EpimAb’s proprietary Fabs-In-TandemImmunoglobulin (FIT-IgTM) platform to generate multiple bispecific antibodies combined with antibodies sourced from Kymab’s proprietary KymouseTM platform. Kymab will have the development and commercialization rights to these bispecifics in all geographical regions outside of China, and, under the terms of the cross license agreement, EpimAb will have the rights for the China market. Each party is eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties for development programs pursued by the other party.
“Today’s agreement with Kymab represents our first license agreement outside of China and we are looking forward to combining our complementary antibody technologies to create novel treatments for severe human diseases,” said Dr. Chengbin Wu, CEO and founder of EpimAb. “Kymab’s expertise in generating world class antibodies specifically in the immuno-oncology area is a perfect strategic fit for EpimAb. The candidates from this collaboration will significantly strengthen EpimAb’s proprietary pipeline with highly innovative molecules.”
“Bispecific antibodies have enormous potential to exploit our growing molecular and cellular understanding of the tumor microenvironment as it relates to immuno-oncology,” said Dr. David Chiswell, CEO of Kymab. “This provides new opportunities to realize genuinely synergistic therapeutic activities and our collaboration with EpimAb will allow us to generate innovative bispecific molecules based on parental antibodies from our KymouseTM platform quickly and efficiently”.
EpimAb’s innovative FIT-IgTM technology offers a novel approach for generating bispecific antibodies, with the resulting molecules fully retaining the biological properties of their parental monoclonal antibodies without the need to significantly modify the basic structural elements of the bispecific antibody. FIT-IgTM molecules generated to date have demonstrated excellent biological and pharmacological characteristics, as well as excellent physical-chemical properties. The combination of Kymab’s Kymouse™ human antibody discovery platform with the FIT-IgTM technology will assure the highest probability of finding the best-in-class bispecific antibodies with highly attractive drug properties.
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About Kymab
Kymab is a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of fully human monoclonal antibody drugs using its proprietary KymouseTM antibody platform.
KymouseTM has been designed to maximise the diversity of human antibodies produced in response to immunisation with antigens. Selecting from a broad diversity of fully human antibodies assures the highest probability of finding that rare drug candidate with best-in-class characteristics. KymouseTM naturally matures these molecules to highly potent drugs obviating the need for further time-consuming modifications. Kymab is using the platform for its internal drug discovery programmes and in partnership with pharmaceutical companies. Kymab commenced operations in 2010 and has raised over US$120m of equity financing which includes $90m Series B financing. It has an experienced management team with a successful track record in drug discovery and development and has numerous therapeutic antibody programmes in immune-oncology, auto-immunity; hematology, infectious disease and other areas. http://www.kymab.com
About EpimAb Biotherapeutics, Inc.
EpimAb Biotherapeutics is a privately owned biopharmaceutical R&D company based in Shanghai with a proprietary unique and efficient technology called FIT-IgTM (Fabs-In-Tandem Immunoglobulin) to generate bispecific molecules with antibody-like properties. With this platform EpimAb is creating a pipeline of its own novel bispecific antibody therapeutics focused around immuno-oncology and other areas of high value to patients. EpimAb is also committed to diversifying its pipeline through selective licensing of its platform to partners worldwide. For further information, please visit www.epimab.com