Saturday, May 23, 2020
AbCellera announced that it has entered into a multi-year strategic research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) on the discovery of antibodies for up to nine Lilly-selected therapeutic targets. Lilly will have the rights to develop and commercialize therapeutic products resulting from the collaboration.
AbCellera and Lilly were in discussions about the multi-target agreement in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. The companies worked quickly to focus the initial scope of the collaboration on creating antibody therapeutics for the possible prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Lilly will select up to eight additional targets during the multi-year agreement.
“Lilly chose to partner with AbCellera because of their novel technology platform, and it has enabled the rapid identification of lead antibody candidates for our COVID-19 efforts. We’re excited to now apply it to other therapeutic targets,” said Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., Lilly’s chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories. “AbCellera’s capabilities and team are extremely impressive and we are proud of the progress we’ve made together thus far.”
Applying best-in-class technology and custom innovation to each project, AbCellera partners with leading pharma and biotech to enable programs for any target class. With more than 55 successfully completed programs, AbCellera is transforming the field of biologics by reducing the time it takes to identify lead candidates and advance new products towards the clinic.
“By working together seamlessly, our teams have moved with unprecedented speed and have advanced from antibody discovery to a lead candidate for human testing in months instead of years,” said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., CEO of AbCellera. “We look forward to expanding our collaboration with Lilly, working together to continue to redefine how antibody treatments reach the patients who need them.”
Under the terms of the agreement, AbCellera received an up-front payment and will receive research payments for the non-COVID-19 targets. AbCellera is also eligible to receive pre-clinical, clinical, and commercial milestones and tiered royalties on future sales.
