HiFiBiO SAS has achieved a milestone in its antibody research collaboration with Pfizer, triggering an undisclosed milestone payment to HiFiBiO.
 
The collaboration, signed in 2014, is for the development and validation of HiFiBiO’s high throughput antibody discovery platform for mining of immune repertoires. The platform uses single cell-based screening of entire antibody-secreting B cell populations along with bar coded next-gen sequencing and rapid DNA synthesis to identify multiple leads and enable the development of potential optimized antibody candidates.
 
“Achievement of the milestone is an important step toward establishing the HiFiBiO platform for the discovery of novel, differentiated antibody therapeutics across a broad class of therapeutically important targets,” said Fred Dom, HiFiBiO’s chief executive officer. “The agreement is part of our strategy to establish collaborations with pharmaceutical companies to apply our platform to potentially discover and develop the next generation of antibody therapeutics.”
 
“The emergence of antibodies as a major therapeutic class has created a need for improved screening approaches using antigen specific B-cells,” said Will Somers, Ph.D., vice president of Pfizer Global Biotherapeutic Technology. “Our collaborative relationship with HiFiBiO has accelerated the development and potential application of this particular antibody drug discovery approach.”