ABL Bio Partners with Swiss CDMO Company for Bispecific Antibody Development

Global CDMO No.1 Lonza and Agreement

ABL Bio announced on the 5th that it has signed an agreement with Lonza, the global leader in contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) industry, for the development and production of bispecific antibody drug candidates.

ABL Bio CI. [Image provided by ABL Bio]

Under this agreement, Lonza will provide integrated services for ABL Bio's bispecific antibody candidates from the DNA stage to the Investigational New Drug (IND) application.

The project will commence this month at Lonza's biologics site in Slough, UK. Lonza's 'GS Xceed' expression system, which includes a high-efficiency transposon-based gene integration technology suitable for the expression of bispecific or other difficult-to-express proteins, will be utilized.

Jennifer Cannon, Global Head of Lonza's Mammalian Pharma & Biotech Services, stated, "As biologic drug formulation pipelines evolve into more complex protein forms, bispecific or multispecific molecules are taking up a larger portion of Lonza's portfolio. Through this collaboration, we aim to help ABL Bio's pipelines advance more quickly and flexibly toward commercialization, bringing innovative therapeutic antibody candidates one step closer to patients."

Lee Sang-hoon, CEO of ABL Bio, said, "Just as Lonza's CDMO services are not limited to bispecific antibodies, ABL Bio will also diversify its next-generation pipelines such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), expanding our growth scope and leading the antibody field."

Meanwhile, ABL Bio is conducting global clinical trials in the US, China, and Korea for more than six pipelines including ABL001 (VEGFxDLL4), ABL111 (Claudin18.2x4-1BB), ABL503 (PD-L1x4-1BB), ABL105 (HER2x4-1BB), ABL202 (ROR1 ADC), and ABL301 (a-synxIGF1R). Pipelines such as ABL103 (B7-H4x4-1BB) and ABL104 (EGFRx4-1BB) are also preparing to enter clinical trials.