Novel Antibodies against a Ground-Breaking New Target for the Treatment of Cardiovascular Fibrosis Developed by Enleofen Bio, with Support from Abzena, Featured in ‘Nature’ Article

CAMBRIDGE, England & SINGAPORE

Abzena plc (AIM: ABZA, ‘Abzena’), the life sciences group providing services and technologies to enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, works with Enleofen Bio Pte Ltd (‘Enleofen Bio’), to develop first-in-class antibody therapeutics for the treatment of fibrotic human diseases.

The Founders of Enleofen Bio discovered that inhibiting Interleukin 11 (IL11) prevents fibrosis through a wide range of pathways, putting it at the very centre of the fibrotic process. This breakthrough research was published today in Nature, the leading scientific journal.

Enleofen Bio has developed a wide range of potent IL11 inhibitors and its fully human antibody development program is being advanced with the use of Abzena’s Composite CHO™ cell line technology. Enleofen Bio may in the future opt to progress with large scale manufacturing at Abzena’s San Diego facility.

Abzena will also support Enleofen Bio through the development of alternative strategies to block IL11 signalling. Abzena’s wide range of protein engineering technologies will help to translate findings from successful proof-of-concept studies in preclinical models of disease to the clinic.

Enleofen is currently investing proceeds from a successful Series A fundraising into the development of novel fibrosis treatments. Enleofen has an exclusive licence to a comprehensive suite of patent applications covering IL11’s role in fibrosis and a range of products to treat fibrosis.

Prof Stuart Cook, co-founder of Enleofen Bio, commented:

“IL11 is a truly outstanding drug target for preventing fibrosis. Organ fibrosis causes deaths of millions of people around the world and current treatment options are very limited. We believe anti-IL11 therapies will transform the treatment of patients suffering from fibrosis of the lung, heart, liver, kidneys and other organs”

“We chose to work with Abzena because of its proven expertise in antibody engineering and cell line development.”

Campbell Bunce, SVP Scientific Operations, said:

“We believe our expertise and integrated offering across biology and biomanufacturing will allow Enleofen Bio seamless development across its portfolio of novel treatments for preventing fibrosis .

“This agreement represents another example of customers using a range of Abzena’s services to enable their biopharmaceutical development program.”

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

For the full release, including further information on Enleofen Bio and Fibrosis, please visit Abzena’s website: http://www.abzena.com/media/news/

Publication in Nature

This study was published online on 13 November 2017, time, in Nature, under the title “IL11 is a crucial determinant of cardiovascular fibrosis” by Sebastian Schafer et al.

About Abzena PLC

Abzena (AIM: ABZA) provides proprietary technologies and complementary services to enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products. The term ‘Abzena Inside’ is used by Abzena to describe products that have been created using its proprietary technologies and are being developed by its partners, and include Composite Human Antibodies™ and ThioBridge™ Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Abzena has the potential to earn future licence fees, milestone payments and/or royalties on ‘Abzena Inside’ products.

Abzena offers the following services and technologies across its principal sites in Cambridge (UK), San Diego, California (USA) and Bristol, Pennsylvania (USA):

• Immunology research studies, including immunogenicity assessment of candidate biopharmaceutical products;
• Protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins;
• Cell line development for the manufacture of recombinant proteins and antibodies;
• Contract process development and GMP manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins for preclinical and clinical studies;
• Contract synthetic chemistry and bioconjugation research services, focused on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs); and
• Proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies and novel payloads for ADC development; and GMP manufacturer of ADC linkers, payloads & combined linker-payloads.

For more information, please see www.abzena.com

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