Drug Discovery Platform Company AbCellera Receives $175.6 Million Commitment

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 4, 2020
  • Privately held Canadian drug discovery platform company AbCellera announced that it received a commitment of up to $175.6 million

Privately held Canadian drug discovery platform company AbCellera announced that it received a commitment of up to $175.6 million in support from the Government of Canada under Innovation, Science and Economic Development’s (ISED) Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) in order to expand efforts related to the discovery of antibodies for use in drugs to treat COVID-19 and to build technology and manufacturing infrastructure for antibody therapies against future pandemic threats. AbCellera’s drug discovery platform searches and analyzes natural immune systems to find antibodies that can be used to prevent and treat disease.

And AbCellera’s technology — which combines high-throughput microfluidics, big data, machine learning, bioinformatics and genomics — identifies new first-in-class drugs and reduces the time it takes to bring treatments to clinic. AbCellera’s partners include leading biotechnology companies, global health organizations, and six of the top 10 biopharmaceutical companies.

AbCellera’s antibody discovery platform is being used to search blood samples of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 to aid in the discovery of antibodies that can be used to treat and prevent the disease. And since receiving one of the first North American samples from a recovered patient on February 25th, AbCellera identified over 500 unique human anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies as part of a collaboration with the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (part of the US National Institutes of Health). Antibodies discovered by AbCellera could be used to create new diagnostic tests to support the medical community in monitoring the spread of COVID-19.

AbCellera previously announced a partnership with Eli Lilly and Company that seeks to develop a treatment for COVID-19 with the goal of beginning clinical trials in July 2020. And as part of the collaboration, Lilly will independently fund and lead clinical development and testing of antibody therapeutics discovered through this partnership.

The Strategic Innovation Fund is quickly deploying support to Canadian companies that are working on large-scale and later-stage promising research and development projects aimed at providing medical countermeasures to COVID-19, including vaccines and critical medical supplies. And in addition to the support from the Government of Canada, AbCellera is receiving support from the City of Vancouver.

Phase 1 of the project will improve and apply AbCellera’s world-leading antibody discovery platform to identify fully human antibodies for the potential prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and future pandemics. And Phase 2 will build a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility in Vancouver, BC. This facility will be the first in Canada capable of going from a patient sample to manufacturing antibodies for clinical testing, and will help Canada be prepared to respond to future pandemics.

Key Quotes:

“Our government is mobilizing its resources to confront COVID-19, supporting the researchers and businesses that are working hard to develop medical countermeasures to beat this pandemic. Today’s contribution will support AbCellera Biologics as they use their world-leading technology to rapidly identify solutions for COVID-19 while ensuring Canada’s long-term preparedness for future health challenges.”

-The Honorable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

“Each and every one of us is affected, and our teams stand together, galvanized to fight this outbreak. We are proud to have the support of the Government of Canada to quickly find solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

-Carl Hansen, Ph.D., CEO of AbCellera

“The City of Vancouver is fully committed to ensuring AbCellera has the infrastructure needed as they accelerate finding a treatment for COVID-19. We couldn’t be more proud to be on the front lines of this global effort thanks to the innovation and leadership of AbCellera.”

-Mayor Kennedy Stewart, City of Vancouver