BRIEF—AbCellera and IGM Biosciences in multi-year antibody discovery deal

Privately-held Canadian firm AbCellera and Californian biotech IGM Biosciences have entered into a multi-year, multi-target strategic research collaboration and license agreement to facilitate the discovery and development of IgM antibodies.

AbCellera will generate panels of antibodies for multiple therapeutic targets identified by IGM using its full-stack, AI-powered antibody discovery technology, and will also have the rights to develop and commercialize the antibodies resulting from this collaboration. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Fred Schwarzer, chief executive of IGM, said: “We believe that AbCellera’s technology will assist us in rapidly identifying the best antibodies against a large number of agonist targets, as well as other historically difficult targets, for both oncology and immunology applications.

“Engineered IgM and IgA antibodies may be able to overcome some of the limitations of the current IgG-based therapeutics, and this partnership demonstrates the depth of our commitment to ensuring that the potential of our IgM and IgA technology platform is fully realized in areas of high unmet medical need.”