F-star, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, UK, has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with AbbVie to research and develop bispecific antibodies in immuno-oncology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

F-star's Modular Antibody Technology platform introduces an antigen binding site into the constant region of an antibody to create a so-called Fcab (an Fc-domain with antigen binding activity). In a combinatorial plug & play process, an Fcab can then be used to make many different bispecific antibodies using variable regions binding to second targets.

Under the collaboration agreement, F-star and AbbVie will create Fcabs against two immuno-oncology targets and generate several bispecific antibody drug development candidates from these Fcabs. The AbbVie research activities for this collaboration will be led by AbbVie Biotherapeutics.

Source: F-star