AbCellera Biologics Inc. is a

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

-based contract research organization (CRO) that is contracted by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for antibody services, and researches and develops human antibodies as a service for its clients. The company is best known for its leading role in the

Pandemic Prevention Platform A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic dise ...

, a project of

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

's Biological Technologies Office. AbCellera utilizes a proprietary technology platform, which they claim can develop "medical countermeasures within 60 days." Its platform for single-cell screening was initially developed at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

History

AbCellera was founded in 2012 by biomedical researchers Carl Hansen, Véronique Lecault, Kevin Heyries, Daniel Da Costa and Oleh Petriv. In November 2016, the company received a 645K grant from the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...

to develop a test for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. In September 2018, a $10M

series A round A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in excha ...

of funding was closed. In May 2020, a $105M

series B round A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the p ...

of funding was closed. In January 2017, AbCellera announced that it would be collaborating with

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...

to discover and develop antibodies against "undisclosed membrane protein targets.”

COVID-19 treatments: initial expansion and subsequent decline

In June 2020, AbCellera announced it had begun the world's first study of a potential

antibody An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as pathogenic bacteria, bacteria and viruses, includin ...

treatment against

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

, with a Phase 1 trial of LY-CoV555 (Bamlanivimab), in collaboration with

Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company, Trade name, doing business as Lilly, is an American multinational Medication, pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries. Its products are sold in approximately 125 count ...

. The drug was granted an Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

in November 2020, and subsequently renewed in February and March 2021. The EUA was revoked in April 2021, with the FDA citing an updated conclusion that "the known and potential benefits of bamlanivimab alone no longer outweigh the known and potential risks for the product," because of significantly reduced efficacy against emerging

variants of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are viruses that, while similar to the original, have genetic changes that are of enough significance to lead virologists to label them separately. SARS-CoV-2 is the v ...

. In September 2021, the company announced a multi-year agreement with

Moderna Moderna, Inc. ( ) is an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that focuses on RNA therapeutics, primarily mRNA vaccines. These vaccines use a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to carry inst ...

to develop

mRNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of Protein biosynthesis, synthesizing a protein. mRNA is ...

-based antibody treatments against multiple diseases. In January 2022, the company received a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to identify

monoclonal antibodies A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a Lineage (evolution), cell lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Mon ...

against

respiratory syncytial virus Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), also called human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) and human orthopneumovirus, is a virus that causes infections of the respiratory tract. It is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus. Its name is derive ...

(RSV). A second COVID-19

monoclonal antibody therapy Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have varied therapeutic uses. It is possible to create a mAb that binds specifically to almost any extracellular target, such as cell surface proteins and cytokines. They can be used to render their target ineffectiv ...

(Bebtelovimab) was given Emergency Use Authorization in February 2022, with the U.S. Government committing to a $720 million purchase of up to 600,000 doses. However, several months later, the FDA removed the authorization, due to lack of effectiveness. As of November 2022 following the FDA decision to remove authorization for using Abcellera COVID antibodies, the company has no drugs on the market. As a result of the discontinuation of the COVID antibodies, the stock price subsequently plummeted by over 95% from IPO, with increasing net losses amounting to -$163M in 2024.

References

{{Vancouver Corporations Biotechnology companies of Canada Companies listed on the Nasdaq Canadian companies established in 2012 Companies based in Vancouver

History

COVID-19 treatments: initial expansion and subsequent decline

See also

References