The antibody developers at Adimab have added two more big names in biopharma to their roster of collaborators: Novo Nordisk and Biogen Idec. Each big developer turned to the Lebanon, NH-based biotech led by Tillman Gerngross to discover new antibodies that can be used against two targets. And as is often the case with an Adimab deal, the dollars and targets involved remained under wraps.
Adimab--a 2010 Fierce 15 company--also noted that it has achieved a slate of technical milestones in its work for Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and Human Genome Sciences. And the antibody company announced that Merrimack Pharmaceuticals exercised a commercial license for MM-151, which is slated to enter the clinic in the fall of 2011.
Gerngross is a well known figure in the antibody world. He founded GlycoFi and later sold it to Merck for $400 million. And he's always been supremely confident that his new company will do even better. Last year he told FierceBiotech that Adimab can turn over new antibodies to their client companies to begin work on in less than 8 weeks. The standard approach in use today can take that many months or longer.
"Our technology is simply faster, dramatically reduces the risk of development failures, and generates higher quality leads even against challenging targets; in fact many of our partners come to us with targets that have failed using traditional phage display approaches," said Gerngross in a release.
- read more in the Adimab release