With Novartis deal, Adimab expects profitability this year

Lebanon, NH-based Adimab has inked a research collaboration with Novartis, marking its fifth deal with a major pharma company in just over a year. The developer will use its discovery platform to identify fully human antibodies against two targets selected by Novartis. Novartis has rights to commercialize the identified antibodies, while Adimab gets an undisclosed upfront payment, preclinical milestones and licensing fees. Adimab could also receive clinical development milestones and royalties on sales resulting from the collaboration.

Adimab's discovery platform identifies preclinical candidates in less than three months, which the company says takes the uncertainty out of preclinical development for its partners. The biotech has has agreements with Merck, Roche and Pfizer, and also announced today that it's received a second milestone payment from its partnership with Merck. "With current announced and unannounced contracts, continued revenue from milestone payments and broad interest around Adimab's platform, we expect 2010 to be our first profitable year," boasts Errik Anderson, COO of Adimab.

"Based on our early success, we believe that Adimab's technology will continue to be in high demand and we are in active discussions with several partners regarding broader unencumbered access and technology transfer," says Guy van Meter, Senior Director of Business Development of Adimab.

- here's the Adimab release
- check out the Xconomy article for more