WuXi Biologics and ABL Bio have expanded their partnership for novel bispecific antibodies and immune-oncology program.
 
Under the terms of the agreements, ABL Bio has rights to use WuXi Biologics' proprietary discovery platforms, including WuXiBody and CD3 platform, to research, develop and commercialize multiple bispecific antibodies, as well as rights to develop new bispecific antibodies targeting novel immune check point receptor. WuXi Biologics will receive an upfront payment as well as development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of about $220 million, and will be entitled to royalties based on global sales of these programs.
 
In November 2018, ABL and WuXi formed an exclusive development and clinical manufacturing partnership for multiple bispecific antibodies.
 
"We are quite excited about this collaboration with WuXi Biologics," said Sang Hoon Lee, chief executive officer, ABL Bio. "I believe that the partnership with WuXi Biologics will bring a synergy for developing our bispecific antibody pipelines. It will help us to develop novel immune-oncology therapies on different bispecific platforms and lead us to step up to be a global top-tier biotechnology company for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative disease treatment."
 
Chris Chen, chief executive officer, WuXi Biologics, said, "We are glad to expand the partnership with ABL Bio, which manifests that WuXi Biologics has been well recognized as a global leader in the development and manufacturing of next-generation biologics such as bispecific antibodies. This is the seventh partnership we signed since we globally launched this exciting platform last August. Quick adoption of our WuXiBody bispecific platform further validates that this proprietary platform addresses most technical limitations of current bispecific platforms and can potentially tremendously reduce the cost of making these biologics.