Alphamab Oncology (HK: 9966) of Suzhou will partner with Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences to develop a therapeutic antibody for COVID-19 globally. Neutralizing antibodies target proteins on the surface of virus. Because these antibodies inhibit the virus' binding and entry into target cells, they work as a protection against COVID-19 and a treatment for the disease. Mixed antibodies amplify the therapeutic effect and prevent the virus from "escaping" via mutation, the partners said.

Institut Pasteur will contribute its R&D and experience with infectious diseases while Alphamab will use its proprietary Mixed Antibodies Platform, to develop COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies with high neutralizing activity. It will also add its experience with China clinical development. Pasteur will be responsible for analysis of neutralizing activity of COVID-19 antibodies and will employ its global R&D network to expedite the completion of global clinical trials.

Dr. Ting Xu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Alphamab Oncology, said, "Since the end of 2019, COVID-19 has ravaged the world and has become the major global public health issue. We plan to partner with Institut Pasteur Shanghai by leveraging our proprietary antibody technology platform, extensive experiences in antibody drug R&D and established manufacturing platform to accelerate the development of COVID-19 antibodies to combat COVID-19, prevent subsequent outbreaks and contribute to the further prevention and control of this epidemic."

Dr. Hong Tang, Director General and Legal Representative of Institut Pasteur Shanghai added, "Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the Institut Pasteur Shanghai has been focusing on R&D Projects including virus detection and origin tracing, antibody drug and vaccine, and has achieved quite a few progress. This partnership with Alphamab Oncology on COVID-19 neutralizing antibody drug has demonstrated not only the innovation capability of our research and development team, but also a result of the reform of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the capable platform of Shanghai Science and Innovation Center. Our institute will collaborate with industry players to accelerate drug development and contribute to the prevention and control of pandemic as soon as possible."

Alphamab has proprietary biologics platforms in bi-specifics and protein engineering that it has used to develop a pipeline of eight anti-cancer drug candidates, four of which have advanced into Phase I – III clinical development phases in China, the US and Japan.

Yesterday, Alphamab announced a collaboration with Sanofi (EURONEXT: SAN; NSDQ: SNY) to test a combination of KN026, Alphamab's anti-HER2 bispecific mAb, paired with Sanofi's Taxotere® (Docetaxel) in HER2+ breast cancer.

See our other articles on Alphamab.

Disclosure: none.