June 5, 2020 -- AbbVie, Harbour BioMed, Utrecht University, and Erasmus Medical Center announced that they have entered into a collaboration to develop a novel antibody therapeutic agent to prevent and treat COVID-19.
The focus of the collaboration will be to advance the fully human neutralizing antibody, 47D11, that was discovered by Utrecht University, Erasmus Medical Center, and Harbour BioMed. The antibody discovery was reported in Nature Communications on May 4.
47D11 is a promising therapy based on the mechanism by which the antibody targets SARS-CoV-2. It blocks the conserved region of the spike protein and has been shown to block SARS-CoV-2 infection in cell culture studies.
Under the terms of the collaboration, AbbVie will support the other organizations through preclinical activities, while working to develop late-stage preclinical and clinical studies. AbbVie will receive an option to exclusively license the antibody from the three parties for therapeutic clinical development and commercialization worldwide.
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