Avantgen Enters a Strategic Collaboration Agreement to Develop Novel Anti-Cancer Therapeutic with Its NK Cell Engager Technology

Avantgen Enters a Strategic Collaboration Agreement to Develop Novel Anti-Cancer Therapeutic with Its NK Cell Engager Technology

AvantGen’s NK cell engager technology now available for partnering on a target-exclusive basis

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – AvantGen, Inc., a biotechnology company with its array of technology platforms for antibody discovery, optimization, and novel NK cell engager generation, today announced a strategic agreement with an undisclosed biopharmaceutical company for the purpose of generating multiple novel bi-specific NK cell engaging therapeutic antibody product candidates.

Under the terms of the agreement, AvantGen will be responsible for engineering bi-specific variants of specified molecules using its proprietary NK cell engager platform and the biopharmaceutical company’s antibodies against a novel disease target. The biopharmaceutical company will receive worldwide rights on an exclusive basis with respect to its proprietary target to develop and commercialize product candidates arising from the collaboration. AvantGen receives upfront payments and is eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties associated with the development and sale of any products derived from the collaboration.

“We are pleased to collaborate with a team of talented leaders in the field of immuno-oncology to generate a novel class of anti-cancer molecules with superior efficacy. Our cutting-edge NK cell engager platform is comprised of binders that are exquisitely specific for CD16a, an activating receptor expressed on NK cells, but do not cross-react with the highly homologous CD16b receptor which is expressed on neutrophils.  These attributes are intended to greatly enhance desirable NK cell-mediated antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity against cancer cells while minimizing the undesirable inhibitory effects of neutrophil-mediated ADCC functions,” said Xiaomin Fan, Ph.D., founder and president of AvantGen.  Dr. Fan continued, “Our platform is further differentiated by designing the NK cell engagers to activate NK cells only in the presence of cancer cells that are recognized by the tumor targeting moiety of the engager and in a manner that is not affected by high concentrations of human IgG.  We welcome the opportunity to generate novel product candidates for our biopharmaceutical company partner under this collaboration, and look forward to entering similar arrangements with others on a cancer target-exclusive basis.”

About AvantGen

AvantGen, Inc is a leader in the use of yeast display technology for antibody discovery and optimization.  Founded by experts in the creation of antibody discovery and optimization platforms, AvantGen excels in the rapid generation of antibodies for therapeutic, diagnostic and research tool applications. The Company’s platforms include a robust yeast display system, large natural human antibody database, fully human antibody libraries comprised of over 100 billion antibody clones displayed by yeast cells, NK cell engager technology, flow cytometry-based and other screening technologies, as well as novel methodologies for rabbit monoclonal antibody generation. These versatile platforms can be used to discover and optimize antibodies directed at specific disease targets, affinity mature existing antibodies to improve their binding properties and humanize antibodies to render non-human antibodies suitable for human therapeutic applications, as well as generate rabbit monoclonal antibodies for applications that need extremely high specificity, such as antibodies capable of distinguishing point mutations and post-translational modifications for IHC, and anti-idiotype antibodies for PK studies.  AvantGen’s partners include pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostic and government entities, many of which are repeat customers. For more information, visit www.avantgen.com.  To see the full press release, visit https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191107005865/en/AvantGen-Enters-Strategic-Collaboration-Agreement-Develop-Anti-Cancer

Contact:
Mark F. Kubik, Chief Business Officer
mkubik@avantgen.com
Tel:  858-381-5214
Cell: 720-441-9396

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faq Want to learn more?

  • Why Yeast?

    Yeast, or Saccharomyces cerevisiae aka brewer’s yeast to be exact, has the best of both worlds as a model organism for drug discovery. In selecting the right model, two opposing factors are: 1) finding an organism that can be used cost-effectively and ethically, and 2) being physiologically relevant by having it as similar as humans, the intended patients. This is where yeast has all the advantages: 1) it is unicellular, grows incredibly fast at a doubling rate of 90 minutes, and is easy and safe (non-pathogenic) to culture, meanwhile 2) as a eukaryote it can properly express, fold, and glycosylate proteins such as antibodies similar to mammals.

  • Yeast is “similar” but not the same as in humans with regards to post-translation modification (PTM) of proteins such as glycosylation?

    Correct, there are slight differences in the PTM profiles of proteins expressed in yeast versus mammals. However, we recombinantly express our lead antibodies in HEK293 or CHO cells and rarely observe a loss in activity. This is in stark contrast with E. coli-based systems like phage or cell-free, where bacteria lack protein glycosylation machinery.

  • Is affinity maturation required after using one of your platforms?

    Due to our large size rationally-designed Germliner™ library collection coupled with our rapid cell sorting based screening, we consistently obtain single-digit and subnM affinity antibodies with optimal developable characteristics. Interestingly, our popular AvantGeneer affinity maturation platform has been frequently used to optimize client antibodies that were originally discovered with hybridoma and human transgenic mouse platforms.

  • My target is a GPCR. Will your platform work?

    We have had success with multi-transmembrane proteins such as GPCRs, by using virus-like-particles (VLPs), nanodiscs, and client-designed variants with increased solubility.

  • What materials should I provide?

    We typically use various amounts of biotinylated, DyLight™ 650 conjugated, and unlabeled antigens for all projects. It’s important that both labeled and unlabeled antigens are QC’ed by provider, third party, and/or AvantGen. >0.5 mg/mL concentration, >80% monomer percentage, and >90% purity. Preferred buffer is PBS and no tris-based buffers please.

    Estimated Material Amounts*

    Application Stage Discovery Affinity Maturation Rabbit mAb
    All stages 1.5-2 mg biotinylated or 2-3 mg unlabeled 0.5 mg biotinylated or 1 mg unlabeled 2 mg unlabeled and 1 mg biotinylated
    FACS and screening 0.5-1 mg biotinylated or 1-2 mg unlabeled 0.2-0.5 mg biotinylated or 0.5-1 mg unlabeled 1 mg biotinylated and 0.2 mg unlabeled
    Screening only 0.2 mg biotinylated or 0.2-0.5 mg unlabeled 0.2 mg biotinylated or 0.2-0.5 mg unlabeled 0.2-0.5 mg unlabeled

    *Assuming 50 kDa antigen. AvantGen can bioconjugate and QC as needed.

Declaration of Interest
At AvantGen, we are dedicated to pioneering research and development. We affirm that our interests align with our mission to enhance health and wellness, and declare that there are no conflicts of interest, financial and non-financial, that would affect our objectives or operations. Please see our policy here.
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