AbbVie buys COVID-19 antibody licence from Harbour BioMed
pharmafile | December 16, 2020 | News story | Research and Development | AbbVie, COVID-19, Harbour BioMed, antibody
Harbour BioMed (HBM) and Utrecht University (UU) have announced that their fully human, SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibody 47D11 and programme, has been licensed to AbbVie, which has since initiated a Phase I trial of the product.
The antibody, which is designed for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and related coronaviruses, targets a conserved region of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Pre-clinical research strongly suggests it could potentially address the coronavirus pandemic and a range of potential escape mutants.
America-based AbbVie will conduct clinical development of ABBV-47D11 in the US first, before expanding into Europe. If successful, the product will be manufactured and commercialised worldwide.
HBM and UU will receive a one-time licence fee from AbbVie, as well as payments upon achievement of certain development, regulatory and sales-based milestones; and tiered royalties on commercial net sales of the antibody.
Phase I of clinical trials will be a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of single ascending doses of ABBV-47D11. The antibody will be trialled specifically in adults hospitalised with COVID-19, testing three different doses on 24 patients across global study sites to evaluate study-drug related adverse events as primary endpoints, and several other secondary outcomes.
Dr Jingsong Wang, Principal Founder, Executive Director, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of HBM, said: “The rapid progress we have made to date is a credit to the outstanding research by our teams and university partners, the strength of HBM’s fully human antibody discovery platform and AbbVie’s world leading expertise in antibody and antiviral drug development.
“With the clinical programme at AbbVie now underway, we are in a position to contribute a new therapeutic option to address this pandemic.”
Darcy Jimenez
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