WuXi Biologics (2269.HK), a leading global open-access biologics technology platform company offering end-to-end solutions for biologics discovery, development and manufacturing and I-Mab Biopharma ("I-Mab"), a biotech company focusing exclusively on innovative biologics in immuno-oncology and auto-immune diseases, jointly announce today that I-Mab has expanded strategic collaboration with WuXi Biologics and licensed proprietary WuXiBody™ Platform to develop three bispecific antibodies. WuXi Biologics will also be the exclusive partner to develop and manufacture these bispecifics.
Under the terms of the agreement, I-Mab has rights to use the proprietary WuXiBody™ Platform to research, develop and commercialize three bispecific antibodies generated from I-MAB’s proprietary pipeline. WuXi Biologics will receive an upfront payment as well as development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, and will be entitled to royalties based on global sales of these bispecific antibodies.
In April 2017, I-Mab and WuXi Biologics announced a strategic development and manufacturing partnership for multiple biologics of First-in-Class or Best-in-Class potential from I-Mab’s pipeline. The announcement today further expands that collaboration into biologics discovery.
"The expanded partnership with WuXi Biologics for bispecific antibodies is an important addition to our growing proprietary portfolio of next-wave biologics, which results from cutting-edge discovery technologies with the potential to transform standards of care in the respective therapeutic areas," said Dr. Jingwu Zang, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of I-Mab. "Collaborating with a globally renowned biologics technology platform company like WuXi Biologics helps us develop and manufacture these innovative biologics with world-class technical expertise and cost-effectiveness, propelling us one step closer to being an end-to-end fully integrated biopharmaceutical company."
"WuXi Biologics has enabled several clinical manufacturing programs for I-Mab. We are excited to expand our strategic partnership and announce the first WuXiBody™ partnership since we globally launched the exciting platform this month," said Dr. Chris Chen, Chief Executive Officer of WuXi Biologics. "Our proprietary WuXiBody™ bispecific platform addresses technical limitations of bispecific platforms and tremendously reduces cost of making these biologics. We have achieved 16g/L in cell culture titer, 95+% purity after one-step Protein A purification and 95+% yield for Protein A step. WuXi Biologics will continue to invest to develop next-generation globally leading technologies to transform biologics discovery, development and manufacturing."
About WuXiBody™ Platform
WuXiBody™, a proprietary bispecific antibody platform of WuXi Biologics, is potentially the Best-in-Class bispecific platform in the field. It can effectively eliminate CMC challenges of bispecific antibodies, expedite bispecific development by 6-18 months and significantly reduce manufacturing cost, a current limitation of most bispecific platforms. WuXiBody™ bispecifics have achieved 16g/L in cell culture titer, 95+% purity after one-step Protein A purification and 95+% yield for Protein A step. WuXiBody™ Platform enables almost any mAb sequence pairs to be assembled into bispecific constructs. They are characterized to have low immunogencity, long in vivo half-life like mAbs and excellent stability. WuXiBody™ Platform also owns its unique structural flexibility, which makes it convenient to build various formats with different valency (2, 3 or 4 binding sites) to meet the requirements of different bispecific targets.
About I-Mab
Facilitated by a merger between Third Venture Biotech and Tasgen Bio, followed by a Series B financing of US$150 million in 2017, I-Mab has rapidly built a highly experienced team with world-class R&D capabilities. On June 29, 2018, I-Mab announced that it had successfully raised US$220 million in Series C financing with a group of reputable investors led by Hony Capital, representing one of the largest amounts ever raised in Series C by an innovative biotech company in China. I-Mab focuses on discovery and development of First-in-Class and Best-in-Class biologics in the areas of immuno-oncology and auto-immune diseases. The company has already initiated a Phase 2 clinical trial and is prepared to submit multiple IND applications for additional clinical trials in China and the US, including a number of Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies.
About WuXi Biologics
WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK), a Hong Kong, S.A.R., China-listed company, is the only open-access biologics technology platform in the world offering end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing. Our company history and achievements demonstrate our commitment to providing a truly ONE-stop service offering and value proposition to our global clients. As of June 30, 2018, there were a total of 187 integrated projects, including 98 projects in pre-clinical development stage, 78 projects in early-phase (phase I and II) clinical development, 10 projects in late-phase (phase III) development and 1 project in commercial manufacturing. With total estimated capacity of biopharmaceutical production planned in China, Ireland, Singapore and US reaching 220,000 liters by 2021, we will provide our biomanufacturing partners with a robust and premier-quality global supply chain network.
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