Harbour BioMed Enters Agreement to Develop Fully Human Antibody Fragments for Innovative CAR-T Therapy

SHANGHAI & ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

Harbour BioMed announced today that it has entered into an agreement with ImmunoChina Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. to develop fully human monoclonal antibody fragments for use in Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell (CAR-T) Immunotherapy. ImmunoChina is a biotech company focused on developing CAR-T therapy for the treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumors.

Under the agreement, ImmunoChina receives rights to use the fully human antibody fragments discovered by Harbour BioMed through its H2L2 transgenic mouse platform for the development of CAR-T based therapeutic solutions. Harbour will receive an upfront payment and milestones as well as royalties based on net sales. Specific financial details were not disclosed.

“Our transgenic mouse platforms for generating fully human monoclonal antibodies have enabled drug discoveries in novel formats such as bi-specific antibodies, as well as conventional antibodies. The ImmunoChina collaboration is Harbour BioMed’s initial effort to leverage our transgenic mouse platforms for generating fully human antibodies to enable and enhance CAR-T therapies, a rapidly emerging and highly promising immuno-oncology strategy,” said Dr. Jingsong Wang, CEO of Harbour BioMed. “This and our agreements underscore the versatility of our transgenic mouse platforms as powerful tools for the discovery of innovative antibody drugs with optimal properties.”

Dr. Wang noted that more than 30 companies and organizations worldwide are using Harbour BioMed’s platforms for drug discovery. Multiple companies to date have entered IND-directed development based on fully human antibodies discovered with Harbour BioMed platforms. One program has entered early clinical development.

“Harbour BioMed owns leading transgenic platforms for generating fully human monoclonal antibodies, and they are a very reliable business partner to collaborate,” said Ting He, CEO of ImmunoChina. “We believe this collaboration will make ImmunoChina more competitive in developing newer generation of CAR-T product.”

About Harbour BioMed

Harbour BioMed is a global biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing innovative therapeutics for cancer, with a focus on immuno-oncology, and immunological diseases. The company’s discovery and development programs are built around its two patented transgenic mouse platforms (Harbour Mice) for human antibody discovery. The company is building its proprietary pipeline through its innovative internal discovery programs, and through in-licensing clinical stage assets that strategically fit its internal portfolio. Harbour BioMed also licenses the platforms to companies and academic institutions through its Harbour Antibodies subsidiary. For additional information, please visit http://www.harbourbiomed.com.

About Harbour Mice

A fully owned subsidiary of Harbour BioMed, Harbour Antibodies owns two strains of transgenic mice for generating human therapeutic antibodies: (1) mice that generate antibodies comprised of two heavy chains and two light chains (H2L2) with fully human variable regions; and (2) mice that generate novel “heavy chain only” antibodies (HCAb). The HCAb mice enable the development of antibody fragment-based therapeutics such as nanobodies, bi-specific antibodies and CAR-T with favorable properties. For additional information, please visit http://harbourantibodies.com.

About ImmunoChina

ImmunoChina Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. is a leading CAR-T company in China with innovative technology platform and R&D team in gene and cell therapy. Over 95% complete response rate was achieved in one of their CAR-T based exploratory clinical study with more than 50 relapse and refractory leukemia patients.

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