¶ AbCellera
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AbCellera is a Canadian biotechnology company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was launched with assistance from Genome British Columbia.[1]
¶ History
In November 2016, AbCellera received a $645,000 USD grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a test for tuberculosis.[2]
In January 2017, AbCellera announced that it would be collaborating with Pfizer to “apply its proprietary monoclonal antibody (mAb) screening platform to attempt to discover function-modulating antibodies against undisclosed membrane protein targets.”[3][4]
In 2018, AbCellera received US$30.6 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to lead one of four research groups aimed at developing antibody treatments for pandemics.[5][6][7]
In February 2019, AbCellera announced “a multi-target, multi-year deal with Novartis, to identify antibodies for ten therapeutic targets in Novartis’ pipeline, using a unique combination of microfluidics, high-throughput imaging, genomics, deep computing and AI.”[8]
¶ COVID-19
In June 2020, AbCellera announced it had begun the world's first study of a potential antibody treatment against COVID-19, with a Phase 1 trial of LY-CoV555 (Bamlanivimab), in collaboration with Eli Lilly.[9] The drug was granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration in November 2020, which was subsequently renewed in February and March 2021.[10][11]
The EUA was revoked in April 2021, with the FDA citing an updated conclusion that “the known and potential benefits of bamlanivimab alone no longer outweigh the known and potential risks for the product,” because of significantly reduced efficacy against emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2.[12]
A second COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapy (Bebtelovimab) was given Emergency Use Authorization in February 2022, with the United States Federal Government committing to a $720 million purchase of up to 600,000 doses.[13]
The company received a second grant in January 2022 from the Gates Foundation to “identify potent anti-RSV monoclonal antibodies to protect infants in low and middle income countries from RSV infection morbidity and mortality.”[14]
¶ Organization
Investors in AbCellera include:
¶ Partners
AbCellera has partnered with:[16]
- Ablynx
- Autolus Therapeutics
- Denali Therapeutics
- Gilead Sciences
- GlaxoSmithKline
- IGM Biosciences
- Kodiak Sciences
- Lyell
- Merck
- Sanofi
- Teva Pharmaceuticals
¶ Funding
AbCellera has provided notable funding to:
- Life Sciences British Columbia[17]
¶ External links
Annual Report 2020-2021. Genome BC. Retrieved April 18, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20210703114654/https://www.genomebc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/GBC-5198-2020-21-AR-FINAL_WEB.pdf ↩︎
AbCellera Biologics Inc. (2016, November). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. http://archive.today/2022.05.04-180458/https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants/2016/11/opp1163209 ↩︎
Heyries, K. (2017, January 5). AbCellera Announces Multi-Target Research Collaboration with Pfizer. AbCellera. https://www.abcellera.com/news/2017-01-collaboration-with-pfizer ↩︎
Research programme: transmembrane protein modulators - AbCellera/Pfizer. (2021, February 28). Adis Insight; Springer Science+Business Media. https://archive.ph/VNNAb ↩︎
Silcoff, S. (2020, December 11). A Canadian biotech giant is born: AbCellera stock triples in debut, company now worth US$15-billion. The Globe and Mail. https://archive.ph/Qk1Ay ↩︎
Weirich, A. (2020, January 28). AbCellera is mobilizing a response to the novel coronavirus outbreak as part of its DARPA P3 program. AbCellera. https://archive.ph/WvZkz ↩︎
Heyries, K. (2018, March 13). AbCellera Awarded Multi-Year Contract to Lead the Development of a Rapid Response Platform Against Pandemic Viral Threats. AbCellera. https://archive.ph/joDOD ↩︎
Smith, A. (2019, February 14). AbCellera collaborates with Novartis for antibody discovery. PharmaTimes. https://www.pharmatimes.com/news/abcellera_collaborates_with_novartis_for_antibody_discovery_1278276 ↩︎
Hebert, N. (2020, June 1). Lilly Begins World’s First Study of a Potential COVID-19 Antibody Treatment in Humans. Eli Lilly and Company. https://archive.ph/AtTrl ↩︎
An EUA for Bamlanivimab—A Monoclonal Antibody for COVID-19. (2020). JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.24415 ↩︎
Hinton, D. M. (2021, April 16). RE: Emergency Use Authorization 090. U.S. Food & Drug Administration. https://web.archive.org/web/20220504181753/https://www.fda.gov/media/147629/download ↩︎
Office of the Commissioner. (2021, April 19). Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Revokes Emergency Use Authorization for Monoclonal Antibody Bamlanivimab. U.S. Food & Drug Administration. https://archive.ph/M3VFe ↩︎
Tong, A. (2022, February 14). As Omicron rages, FDA clears Eli Lilly/AbCellera’s new antibody days after $720M supply deal. Endpoints News. https://archive.ph/CjaPT ↩︎
AbCellera Biologics Inc. (2022, January). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. http://archive.today/2022.05.04-180519/https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants/2022/01/inv027467 ↩︎
Portfolio. OrbiMed. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230126222015/https://www.orbimed.com/portfolio.html ↩︎
Partnership. AbCellera. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.05.04-185259/https://www.abcellera.com/partnership ↩︎
Our Sponsors. Life Sciences British Columbia. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://archive.ph/Wmtgk ↩︎