In collaboration with the CORAT consortium of academic and industrial partners, Yumab has found fully human monoclonal antibodies that have neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 in the presence of human cells, according to the company.

Yumab said that its next-generation universal human antibody platform generated hundreds of virus-specific antibody candidates. It also identified additional therapeutic candidates by building antibody libraries from recovered COVID-19 donors. The Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) then confirmed antibody drug candidates with full neutralization capacity of a patient-derived SARS-CoV-2 strain.

Yumab and its CORAT partners are communicating closely with regulatory authorities regarding the clinical development of antibody drug candidates and clinical studies in humans are expected to begin in the second half of this year, according to the vendor.