August 17, 2020 -- Swiss biotech company Memo Therapeutics and Northway Biotechpharma plan to collaborate on making a SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibody for COVID-19 therapy.
The collaboration will be conducted over a four-month fast-track process, according to the firms. The fully human antibody candidate, called Mtx-Covab, is isolated from clinically selected convalescent COVID-19 donors with picomolar neutralizing activity against wild-type SARS-CoV-2, the companies said.
Northway will develop the cell line and the manufacturing process for the antibody and will produce custom batches of it for clinical studies. Under the agreement, Northway will develop the cell line manufacturing process and will produce current good manufacturing practice batches of the Memo antibody for clinical studies.
Northway will use a 2,000-liter single-use bioreactor to produce antibodies and other cell-based therapeutics. Beginning in 2021, the company will use a new facility that contains larger-scale stainless-steel bioreactors to ramp up production to meet demand.