March 9, 2022
AvantGen, a San Diego based biotechnology company with a superior yeast display technology for facile antibody discovery and optimization, has entered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx®) Tech program to expedite the commercialization of its sensitive AccuRateTM COVID-19 SelfCheck Over-the-Counter (OTC) test. Applying their robust antibody discovery platform, AvantGen identified […]
Read more »
February 14, 2022
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Adcentrx Therapeutics (“Adcentrx”), a biotechnology company focused on accelerating breakthroughs in antibody drug conjugate (“ADC”) therapeutic development, and AvantGen, a leader in the use of yeast display technology for human antibody discovery and optimization, announced today a three-year, multi-target partnership for the discovery of antibodies to be developed into novel ADC […]
Read more »
May 25, 2021
SAN DIEGO, May 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AvantGen, a San Diego-based biotech, is a leader in the use of yeast display technology for human and rabbit monoclonal antibody discovery and optimization. AvantGen has received an award from the NIH’s RADx Next program to expedite the commercialization of its high affinity rabbit monoclonal antibodies against the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-CoV-2. A pair of the antibody clones has been evaluated extensively in a rapid lateral flow assay (LFA) format for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 N protein. The results demonstrated the test is highly sensitive and superior to many current marketed antigen tests.
Read more »
January 11, 2021
SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESSWIRE)–AvantGen, Inc., a San Diego-based biotechnology company with an array of technology platforms for antibody discovery and optimization, and novel NK and T cell engager generation, today announced licensing of a panel of its anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody clones to IGM Biosciences for COVID-19 therapy development.
Using its novel yeast display system and large diverse human antibody libraries, AvantGen has identified a panel of high affinity human monoclonal antibody clones that bind to two distinct epitopes on the receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Upon binding, the antibodies block the spike protein from interacting with ACE2 and thereby prevent virus-induced cell-killing, also known as cytopathic effect. In addition, one group of antibody clones can also block ACE2’s interaction with SARS-CoV-1, indicating that the epitope recognized by this group of clones is conserved between SARS-CoV-1 and -2, potentially conferring broader neutralizing activity against this family of coronaviruses.
Read more »
August 21, 2020
AVANTGEN ANNOUNCES THE RAPID IDENTIFICATION AND PROMISING INITIAL TESTING OF ANTIBODIES INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE SARS-COV-2 INFECTION AND TREAT COVID-19
SAN DIEGO, CA.– AvantGen, Inc., a privately-held San Diego-based biotechnology company and contract service provider, today announced it has identified and tested fully human synthetic antibodies (“mAbs”) against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, the “novel Coronavirus”) that show promise for development as diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 infection and therapeutics for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Read more »
November 7, 2019
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.
Read more »
November 5, 2019
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 Mark F. Kubik has joined AvantGen as Chief Business Officer (CBO). Mark will lead AvantGen’s business development team, developing and managing new business opportunities and strategic partnerships in therapeutic antibody development based on AvantGen’s cutting-edge platforms.
Mark has over 25 years of experience in business development, alliance and portfolio management and drug discovery and development. The bulk of this work has focused around successfully leading transformative deal creation and productive alliances in the therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) and empowered antibody areas. Most recently, Mark served as CBO at Invenra where he headed its business development function and was responsible for securing multiple mAb discovery and development partnerships and providing strategic guidance. Prior to Invenra, Mark held positions in business development and led transformative and award-winning deal making at Abgenix, Protein Design Labs, XOMA, Seattle Genetics, MacroGenics, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, and i2 Pharmaceuticals / Velocity Sciences, among others. Deal highlights include a global co-development agreement on behalf of Abgenix (now Amgen) with Immunex for Vectibix® (panitumumab), an ex-US strategic alliance on behalf of Seattle Genetics with Takeda for Adcetris® (brentuximab vedotin) (nominated by Recombinant Capital / Allicense for consideration as 2009 “Alliance of the Year”) and a multi-program bispecific discovery collaboration on behalf of MacroGenics with Gilead (won Licensing Executives Society Alliance of the Year in Life Sciences Award in 2013).
Read more »
January 4, 2018
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – AvantGen today announced the successful completion of a first cancer therapeutic antibody discovery program for Tanabe Research Laboratories USA, Inc. (TRL) and the initiation of a second program.
Under the terms of the collaboration, AvantGen is responsible for generating novel antibodies to specified cancer targets using its proprietary human antibody yeast display technology platform. TRL has worldwide rights to develop and commercialize antibodies discovered by AvantGen. 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.
Read more »
September 18, 2015
AvantGen, a leader in novel antibody discovery and engineering, in collaboration with SISCAPA Assay Technologies (SAT), was awarded a SBIR Phase II contract from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop high-affinity, anti-peptide rabbit monoclonal antibodies for mass-spectrometry-based cancer biomarker detection and quantification assays, or so called SISCAPA (Stable Isotope Standards and Capture by Anti-Peptide Antibodies) assays.
Antibodies with high affinity and specificity suitable for cancer biomarker measurements are essential, since there are more than 2,000 potential biomarkers that have been discovered, but only about 100 of them are currently approved by the FDA for clinical diagnostic use.
Read more »
March 1, 2015
AvantGen, a leader in novel antibody discovery and engineering, was awarded a SBIR Phase II grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop novel rabbit monoclonal neuroscience antibodies against 120 targets. Neuroscience related proteins are highly conservative and homologous among different species, making them difficult targets to generate high quality antibodies. Therefore, we need novel methods to yield neuroscience antibodies and one that can distinguish between related family members.
Read more »
