Abzena, Telix in Manufacturing, Bioconjugation Pact

Abzena, a contract manufacturer of biologics and antibody drug conjugates, has signed manufacturing and bioconjugation agreements with Telix Pharmaceuticals, a Melbourne, Australia-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. Telix specializes in developing and commercializing radiopharmaceuticals for diagnostic imaging and therapeutic use.

The agreements have a combined value of $5.9 million. The companies expect the projects to be substantially completed within a 15-month period.

Under the agreements, Abzena will progress two prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeting monoclonal antibodies for treating metastatic prostate cancer. This agreement builds on Abzena’s announcement in July 2017 under which Abzena granted a license to specific antibody-related intellectual property that has been incorporated into Telix’s PSMA radiopharmaceutical program. Subject to successful development, that agreement could deliver license fees and milestone payments to Abzena over its lifetime.

On completion of cell-line development, currently being performed by Abzena using its Composite CHO platform, the research cell banks for both antibodies will be transferred to Abzena’s San Diego, California facility for further process development, generation of master cell banks, and scale-up for manufacturing up to 500 liters.

Abzena says it will also develop a bioconjugation process for one of the antibodies. The bioconjugation process and analytical development will be performed in Cambridge, UK before the process is transferred to Abzena’s GMP manufacturing facility in San Diego for clinical batch production.

Source: Abzena

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