Adagene Announces Strategic Collaboration with NIH to Co-Develop Novel CAR-T Therapies

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on January 14, 2019, Adagene, a biopharmaceutical company committed to becoming “a world-class brand of pioneering, cutting-edge original antibodies,” announced today that it had entered into a strategic collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to jointly conduct specialized research in the field of CAR-T cell therapy.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the premier medical and behavioral sciences research institution in the United States and one of the most important life sciences research organizations worldwide. Its research achievements in recent decades have significantly improved human health and survival. This collaboration is led by Dr. Richard Childs, Director of the Center for Transplant Immunotherapy. Dr. Childs and his team possess extensive experience in both basic and clinical research on immunotherapies targeting tumor-specific antigens induced by retroviruses. Adagene Inc. will be responsible for developing specific antibodies against this target, while Dr. Childs’ laboratory will oversee the subsequent development and clinical studies of CAR-T products.

“We are delighted to collaborate with such an outstanding expert in clinical tumor biology and his laboratory,” said Dr. Luo Peizhi, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-founder of Adagene. “We have been committed to rapidly translating technological innovations into life-saving medicines. Through this collaboration, we will leverage our proprietary Dynamic Precision Antibody Library to discover antibodies, providing new clinical options for patients whose needs remain unmet by existing therapies. This is a rare and highly significant opportunity.”

“Adagene has been dedicated to developing display technologies for complex targets,” said Dr. Fangyong Du, Vice President of Technology Development at Adagene Therapeutics. “This collaboration will leverage Adagene’s proprietary antigen display technology, combined with our dynamic, precision-engineered fully human antibody library featuring up to a trillion-fold diversity. This enables us to rapidly identify specific antibodies against highly challenging non-major histocompatibility complex (non-MHC) antigens, thereby accelerating the clinical development of our collaborative projects.”

Adagene Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to building a proprietary “Dynamic Precision Antibody Library” and a unique pipeline of original antibody therapeutics, guided by its mission that “no antibody should be difficult to develop.” Leveraging its proprietary technology platforms, Adagene has strategically positioned itself in the fields of tumor immunology and targeted therapy. Driven by innovations in targets and antibody technologies, and grounded in robust translational medicine data, the company strives to achieve breakthroughs in the clinical efficacy and safety of its product candidates.

Adagene has completed three rounds of financing, raising a total of over RMB 500 million. Investors include F-Prime Capital (formerly the Fidelity Boston Biotech Fund), FSD Capital Ventures (formerly the Fidelity Growth Fund), WuXi AppTec Venture Capital Fund, Jinpu Health Fund, New World Information Technology, and Sequoia China.