Prellis, Bristol Myers Squibb collaborate to discover antibodies

Prellis Biologics and Bristol Myers Squibb have signed a multi-target collaboration and license agreement to discover antibodies.

As part of the collaboration, the companies will use Prellis Biologics’ externalised human immune system (EXIS) which is based on human lymph node organoids (LNO).

The human antibody discovery platform has the ability to break tolerance mechanisms in vitro for creating high affinity human antibodies that target human proteins.

This platform significantly reduces the discovery and identification time compared to the existing in vivo or in vitro approaches.

Prellis Biologics chief scientific officer Kevin Chapman said: “The EXIS platform effectively breaks tolerance enabling direct discovery of human antibodies to challenging human antigens in less than two weeks.”

Under the multi-target drug discovery deal, the company will collaborate with Bristol Myers Squibb to generate human antibody libraries for select targets.

As per the terms of the agreement, Bristol Myers Squibb will make an undisclosed up-front payment to Prellis and provide funding for development, research, sales milestones, as well as royalties for the licensed antibodies.

Prellis Biologics CEO and founder Melanie Matheu said: “With industry leading speed, the EXIS platform provides high affinity antibodies, derived from lymph node organoids printed with Prellis’ foundational technology, using human PBMCs.