Humabs BioMed reports clinical milestone in medImmune partnership

MedImmune Starts Phase I Clinical Trial to Investigate an Antibody Developed Under a Collaboration with Humabs for the Treatment of Influenza A

Humabs BioMed SA, a leading Swiss antibody therapeutics company, today announced that a novel antibody developed through its proprietary Cellclone technology will be investigated for the treatment of influenza A in a Phase I trial being conducted by MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca.

The investigational antibody, which has broad influenza-neutralizing properties, was isolated by Humabs from human memory B cells and further optimized for higher potency by MedImmune. The resulting antibody, MEDI8852, is exclusively licensed to MedImmune. The Phase I trial (NCT02350751) is designed to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetics of MEDI8852 in healthy adults.

JoAnn Suzich, Ph.D., vice president of infectious disease research and development, MedImmune said:

Our strong, ongoing partnership and collaborations with Humabs reflect our commitment to seeking out innovative new science and technologies, both within and outside our organization, that can help expedite and advance the development of new medicines for the prevention and treatment of challenging infectious diseases

MEDI8852 binds to a novel site in the hemagglutinin stem region that is shared in viruses from all 18 Influenza A subtypes. This region is highly conserved and is considered to be the “Achilles’ heel” of the virus.

“We identified the parental antibody leading to the MEDI8852 antibody only four years ago, demonstrating our ability to rapidly discover and develop human-derived antibodies,” said Dr. Davide Corti, CSO of Humabs BioMed.

Alcide Barberis, Humabs BioMed´s CEO, added, “The influenza A antibody currently under development by our partner MedImmune is just one example of our broad pipeline of therapeutic antibodies. Our antibodies against infectious diseases, cancer and inflammatory diseases are at various clinical and preclinical stages, with four of them already partnered to global pharma companies.”

Humabs discovers and develops antibodies directly derived from individuals whose immune systems have successfully responded to major diseases.  While the concept of isolating antibodies directly from recovered patients is not new, Humabs has developed a unique, comprehensive scheme for screening and selecting naturally occurring antibodies. Its proprietary technology platforms use immortalized donor B cells or cultured plasma cells with unmatched, stable secretion rates. This allows Humabs to perform sophisticated functional screens to rapidly discover antibodies able to opsonize or kill bacteria, block viral entry, or eliminate virus-infected and cancer cells. Instead of looking for binders to predefined targets, the Humabs functional approach is target-agnostic. Within weeks, it leads to ultra-potent antibodies, which can subsequently be developed for therapeutic, diagnostic, or research purposes, including the identification of novel targets or vaccines.