RESEARCH

Abveris Announces Multi-Target, Multi-Year Therapeutic Antibody Discovery Collaboration with Prometheus Biosciences

Abveris, Biosciences | November 12, 2021

Abveris, a leader in antibody drug discovery announced that Prometheus Biosciences and Abveris have entered a multi-year collaboration to develop therapeutic antibodies against multiple targets. The partnership will expand Abveris's role in supporting the rapid development of the Prometheus Biosciences portfolio. The results of the collaboration will bring promising new therapeutics to patients suffering from a variety of immune-mediated diseases.

Under this partnership agreement, Abveris will utilize its proprietary DiversimAbTM hyperimmune mouse technology in combination with humanized mice to develop antibodies against several novel therapeutic targets. Capitalizing on the use of its industry-leading rapid B cell screening platform powered by the Berkeley Lights Beacon®, Abveris will identify promising antibody drug candidates via function-forward, high-resolution screening under expedited timelines.

"We are proud to expand our existing partnership with the team at Prometheus Biosciences to help bring novel biologics to the autoimmune spaceThe Abveris antibody discovery platform, combined with the drug development capabilities of the Prometheus team, will provide promising therapeutics to patients around the world."


Tracey Mullen, Chief Executive Officer at Abveris

"Our team has been impressed by Abveris' exceptional level of scientific expertise and ability to discover and deliver antibodies with potential to translate into therapeutic candidates" said Olivier Laurent, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer of Prometheus. "We look forward to continuing our partnership with Abveris to aid in our portfolio expansion with the common goal of bringing transformational therapies to patients."

About Prometheus Biosciences
Prometheus Biosciences, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering a precision medicine approach for the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel therapeutic and companion diagnostic products for the treatment of immune-mediated diseases, starting first with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The Company's precision medicine platform, Prometheus360, combines proprietary machine learning-based analytical approaches with one of the world's largest gastrointestinal bioinformatics databases to identify novel therapeutic targets and develop therapeutic candidates to engage those targets.

The Company's lead candidate, PRA023, is an IgG1 humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) for the treatment of the two most common forms of IBD, Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn's Disease (CD). The Company has initiated enrollment in a Phase 2 trial in UC patients and a Phase 2a trial in CD patients, each utilizing a genetic-based companion diagnostic designed to identify patients more likely to respond to PRA023.

About Abveris
Abveris is Boston's premier antibody discovery company providing contract research services to the biopharma industry. Abveris applies advanced immunization methods combined with B cell screening and hybridoma-based antibody discovery technologies to provide comprehensive gene-to-antibody discovery services. Abveris is developing the next generation of biologics, cell therapies, vaccines, and diagnostics in partnership with global biopharma leaders. 

Spotlight

Phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, better known as PMSF, is a small molecule serine protease inhibitor used to prevent unwanted proteolysis. 

Spotlight

Phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, better known as PMSF, is a small molecule serine protease inhibitor used to prevent unwanted proteolysis. 

Related News

CELL AND GENE THERAPY, MEDTECH

Pear Therapeutics and Spero Health to Collaborate and Expand Access to PDTs

Pear Therapeutics | January 09, 2023

Pear Therapeutics, Inc., the leader in commercializing and developing software-based medicines known as prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs), announced the expansion of its collaboration with Spero Health, an integrated healthcare services organization. Spero Health, which has adopted reSET® and reSET-O® at 14 locations in Kentucky, plans to expand access to eligible patients at its remaining 99 locations in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Offering new FDA-approved treatment options is a part of Spero Health's mission to promote patient engagement and retention in recovery. Steve Priest, Spero Health’s CEO said, “Spero Health continues to find innovative ways with new technologies to bring solutions to our communities that have been devastated by drug overdose, and we are looking forward to our collaboration with Pear Therapeutics to pursue even better outcomes in treatment.” Adding to this, he further said, “Pear’s technology equips our clinicians with vital measurements via a clinician dashboard that allows us to provide quality care to our patients who suffer from substance use disorders. We believe having access to patient reported data via Pear’s clinician dashboard gives us better insight into patient behaviors. We expect that this approach will help to increase compliance and create efficiencies in how our treatment teams deliver care.” (Source: BusinessWire) Spero Health's two implemented products, reSET® and reSET-O®, have been measured in real-world use, and their therapeutic content has been evaluated in randomized controlled trials, with the results published in peer-reviewed medical journals. reSET® is used for patients aged 18 or older with substance use disorder as a monotherapy, whereas reSET-O® is used in combination with buprenorphine-based medication-assisted treatment for patients 18 and older with opioid use disorder. About Pear Therapeutics Pear Therapeutics, Inc., the parent firm of Pear Therapeutics (US) Inc., is a leader in the development and marketing of software-based pharmaceuticals, also known as prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs). The company intends to transform care through the widespread adoption of clinically validated software-based therapeutics to provide improved patient outcomes, smarter engagement and tracking tools for clinicians, and cost-effective solutions for payers.

Read More

MEDTECH, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT

SOPHiA GENETICS and QIAGEN Partner to Boost Next-gen Sequencing

SOPHiA GENETICS and QIAGEN | March 06, 2023

SOPHiA GENETICS, a healthcare cloud-based software company, announced a new partnership with QIAGEN N.V. that will pair QIAseq reagent technology with the SOPHiA DDM™ platform to improve tumor analysis via next-generation sequencing (NGS). Customers can utilize QIAseq panels with SOPHiA DDM™, a cloud-based data analysis platform to enable new research perspectives. The partnership will support the detection of somatic variants using QIAseq targeted DNA pro panels for homologous recombination repair. HRR is a biomarker test that helps identify tumors with specific mutations that may be sensitive to PARP inhibitors in oncology. SOPHiA GENETICS's Set-Up Program, which aims to establish and demonstrate any test's analytical performance before it is carried out, will be integrated with QIAGEN's kits to support a range of applications. This partnership will allow customers to improve the design of new workflows using QIAseq technologies, while SOPHiA DDM™ will offer extensive applications for QIAGEN kits. QIAGEN intends to expand its partnership with SOPHiA GENETICS to other analysis areas, such as utilizing custom solutions and QIAseq panels. This partnership is the first one in QIAGEN's QIAseq Platform Partnership. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) can transform the detection and management of rare diseases and cancers. However, it also generates large, intricate, and messy datasets that are challenging to analyze. Identifying causal variants and getting valuable insights from NGS data requires specialized expertise, time, and numerous resources. The SOPHiA DDM™ Platform is a machine learning-based analytical tool that can efficiently call, annotate, and pre-classify variants from raw NGS data. In addition, it features user-friendly capabilities to facilitate prioritization, interpretation and reporting. About QIAGEN QIAGEN is a global provider of sample and assay technologies for academic and pharmaceutical research, molecular diagnostics, and applied tests. In addition, the firm offers a wide range of products and solutions for the isolation, purification, and analysis of DNA, RNA, and proteins, as well as automation and bioinformatics services. With over 35 countries and over 5,000 employees, QIAGEN serves customers in various fields such as human healthcare, animal health, and environmental testing. The company is headquartered in Venlo, Netherlands, and has offices and facilities across the globe.

Read More

CELL AND GENE THERAPY, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT

Axcella Announces FDA IND Clearance for AXA1125

Axcella | February 16, 2023

On February 15, 2023, Axcella Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology firm that develops innovative approaches to complex diseases using multi-targeted endogenous metabolic modulator (EMM) compositions, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate a phase 2b/3 trial in the United States for AXA1125 for the treatment of Long COVID Fatigue. The company stated that it has obtained FDA regulatory guidance in favor of a trial that would serve as the registration trial for patients with Long COVID Fatigue. The trial now has acceptance from both the U.K. and U.S. regulatory authorities. Last month, the company also announced a regulatory path to registration for the treatment of Long COVID Fatigue with AXA1125, having received regulatory guidance from the U.K.'s regulatory agency, The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), supporting a single trial that can serve as the registration trial for patients suffering from Long COVID Fatigue. The guidance follows the company's submission of data to both regulatory agencies, including results from the Phase 2a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, which showed that patients who received AXA1125 experienced statistically and clinically significant improvements in both physical (p=0.0097) and mental fatigue (p=0.0097) scores compared to those on the placebo. Consistent with the Ph2a trial, the trial for phase 2b/3 will register patients with fatigue lasting at least 12 weeks post-COVID-19 infection. The primary endpoint will use the same patient reported outcome tool, the Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire (CFQ-11), to measure fatigue improvements alongside physical function, quality of life, and ability to return to work as additional endpoints. The trial participants will receive AXA1125 or a placebo for three months. Long COVID is a persistent long-term effect of the pandemic, which affects a large number of patients worldwide, estimated to be around one hundred million. Fatigue is the most frequently reported symptom, with recent estimates indicating that 15-20% of Americans with COVID suffer from ongoing health problems, and up to four million Americans are unable to work because of Long COVID symptoms. In addition, Long COVID has caused approximately $1 trillion in lost earnings and $544 billion in increased medical expenses. About Axcella Founded in 2010, Axcella is a clinical-stage biotechnology firm dedicated to introducing a novel approach to treating complex diseases using endogenous metabolic modulator (EMM) compositions. Its product candidates contain EMMs and derivatives that are engineered in distinct ratios and combinations to reset multiple biological pathways, improve cellular energetics, and restore homeostasis. The company's pipeline includes lead therapeutic candidates undergoing Phase 2 development for the reduction in risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy (OHE) recurrence, the treatment of Long COVID, and the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Read More