AbCellera announced that LY-CoV555, the lead antibody from the collaboration between AbCellera and Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), has entered into human testing for the potential treatment of COVID-19. LY-CoV555 is developed from a fully human monoclonal antibody identified from the first blood sample obtained from a North American patient who recovered from COVID-19. LY-CoV555 was developed at record speed, taking less than three months to advance from screen to first-in-human clinical trials.
AbCellera develops technologies that remove the bottlenecks in drug discovery and works collaboratively with biotech and pharma companies to bring new therapies to patients. AbCellera quickly scans, decodes, and analyzes antibodies from natural immune systems to discover antibodies that can potentially be developed into novel treatments.
“Our response to COVID-19 is a time-compressed example of why AbCellera exists – to build and bring together the teams and technologies needed to solve the toughest problems in drug development,” said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., CEO of AbCellera. “Lilly has moved with incredible speed and agility, and we are proud to work alongside them as they advance the first potential antibody treatment against COVID-19 into human trials.”
“At AbCellera, we work every day to make a difference in the lives patients. Over the past three months our scientists, software developers, engineers, and supporting teams have all worked tirelessly to make what seemed impossible a reality,” said Ester Falconer, Ph.D., Head of Research & Development at AbCellera. “We feel privileged to be of service in the global fight against COVID-19.”
Leading up to the COVID-19 outbreak, AbCellera invested two years in adapting its technology to rapidly respond to pandemics through its participation in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Pandemic Prevention Program (P3). AbCellera will continue to invest in technologies and capacity for both immediate and long-term rapid pandemic responses. In addition to its ongoing participation in the P3 program, earlier this year AbCellera received support from the Government of Canada to make long-term investments in technology and manufacturing infrastructure for antibody therapeutics against future pandemic threats.
AbCellera’s response to COVID-19 includes collaborations with Lilly and the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Lilly is independently leading the clinical development and testing of the resulting potential antibody therapeutics.
About LY-CoV555
LY-CoV555 is a highly potent, neutralizing IgG1 monoclonal antibody that targets the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Its mechanism of action is designed to block viral attachment and entry into human cells, and to neutralize the virus, potentially preventing and treating COVID-19.
About AbCellera Biologics Inc.
AbCellera is a privately held biotech with a drug discovery platform that searches and analyzes natural immune systems to find antibodies that can be used to prevent and treat disease. AbCellera’s technology, which combines high-throughput microfluidics, hyper-scale data science, machine learning, bioinformatics, and genomics, identifies new first-in-class drugs and reduces the time it takes to bring treatments to the clinic. AbCellera’s partners include leading biotechnology companies, global health organizations, and many of the top 10 biopharmaceutical companies.
