WuXi Biologics and Almirall Sign Strategic Collaboration Agreement for Multiple Bispecific Antibodies Targeting Dermatology Diseases

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Jan 09, 2020, 04:10 ET

The 12^th global licensing partnership for WuXiBody™ since its launch in August 2018 showcasing the power and versatile applications of WuXiBody™ in multiple therapeutic areas

SHANGHAI and BARCELONA, Spain, Jan. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi Biologics ("WuXi Bio") (2269.HK), a leading global open-access biologics technology platform company offering end-to-end solutions for biologics discovery, development and manufacturing, and Almirall, a leading skin-health focused global pharmaceutical company, today announced the signing of a strategic collaboration agreement enabling Almirall to leverage the proprietary WuXiBody™ platform to develop bispecific antibodies for dermatological diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Almirall gains access to WuXi Biologics' proprietary antibody platforms including WuXiBody™, a versatile bispecific platform with flexible valency to fit target biology, to discover multiple novel bispecific antibodies. WuXi Biologics will receive an upfront payment as well as development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments for each bispecific antibody generated from this platform, and will also be entitled to royalties based on global sales generated by these projects.

Bhushan Hardas, M.D., MBA, Chief Scientific Officer of Almirall, commented, "This agreement is a big step forward for us in our objective of becoming a leader in medical dermatology. With WuXi Biologics' know-how in biologic technologies and Almirall's expertise in Dermatology, we will be able to identify bispecific antibodies as effective next-generation therapies for helping patients suffering from dermatological disorders."

Dr. Chris Chen, Chief Executive Officer of WuXi Biologics, stated, "We are delighted to establish this collaboration with Almirall, the 12th global partnership since we launched this exciting platform in August 2018. This represents one further step in validating the power and versatile applications of WuXiBody™ in multiple therapeutic areas, underlining our leadership in next-generation biologic technologies and demonstrating our contributions to enable global partners to develop more new treatments for patients worldwide. WuXi Biologics is committed to developing globally leading technologies to accelerate and transform biologics discovery, development and manufacturing."

About WuXiBody™

WuXiBody™ is a leading proprietary bispecific antibody platform developed by WuXi Biologics. It can effectively break through the CMC barriers for many bispecific antibodies development with high expression yield, high stability, good solubility, and easy purification to homogeneity, expedite the process by 6-18 months and significantly reduce manufacturing cost, a limitation still facing by many other current bispecific platforms.

WuXiBody™ Platform enables almost any mAb sequence pairs to be assembled into bispecific constructs. They are expected to have low immunogenicity risk and longer in vivo half-life. WuXiBody™ Platform also has its unique structural flexibility, which makes it convenient to build various formats with different combination of valencies (1+1, 1+2, 2+2) to meet the requirements of different target biology.

About Almirall

Almirall is a leading skin-health focused global pharmaceutical company that partners with healthcare professionals, applying science to provide medical solutions to patients and future generations. Our efforts are focused on fighting skin health diseases and helping people feel better. We support healthcare professionals in their continuous improvements, providing our innovative solutions where they are needed.

The company was founded almost 75 years ago and has its headquarters in Barcelona. It is listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange (ticker: ALM). Almirall has become a key source of value creation for society thanks to its commitment to its principal shareholders and its decision to help others by understanding their challenges and using science to provide solutions for real life. Total revenues in 2018 were 811 million euros. Almirall has more than 1,800 employees dedicated to research. For more information see www.almirall.es.

About WuXi Biologics

WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK), a Hong Kong-listed company, is a leading global open-access biologics technology platform offering end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing. Our company history and achievements demonstrate our commitment to providing a truly ONE-stop service offering and strong value proposition to our global clients. As of June 30, 2019, there were a total of 224 integrated projects, including 106 projects in pre-clinical development stage, 102 projects in early-phase (phase I and II) clinical development, 15 projects in late-phase (phase III) development and one project in commercial manufacturing. With total estimated capacity for biopharmaceutical production planned in China, Ireland, Singapore, and the U.S. exceeding 280,000 liters by 2022, we will provide our biomanufacturing partners with a robust and premier-quality global supply chain network. For more information on WuXi Biologics, please visit www.wuxibiologics.com.

SOURCE WuXi Biologics