REG - Fusion Antibodies - Update on AI/ML-Ab™ antibody discovery service

Fusion AntibodiesAnnouncement

21/08/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 8468J  Fusion Antibodies PLC  21 August 2023

 

 

Fusion Antibodies plc

("Fusion" or the "Company")

 

Update on AI/ML-Ab(TM) antibody discovery service

New commerical service from OptiMAL® programme

 

Fusion Antibodies plc (AIM: FAB), specialists in pre-clinical antibody
discovery, engineering and supply for both therapeutic drug and diagnostic
applications, announces an update on the Company's AI/ML-Ab(TM) (pronounced
AIM-Lab) service offering.

 

On 19 May 2023, the Company announced that it had signed memoranda of
understanding with two AI/ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning)
companies. The Company is pleased to announce that that is has now signed an
agreement (the "Agreement") with the first of the companies, a leading
US-based AI/ML business, to support Fusion's new AI/ML-Ab(TM) service
offering. Pursuant to the Agreement, it is envisaged that both parties will
co-market the combined service offerings covering both the in silico AI/ML
design of antibodies and their production and evaluation in vitro.

 

Each party to the Agreement will be entitled to a fee for any new business
introduced to the other. Both parties have already combined to begin
commercialisation of the offering and are processing multiple leads derived by
both entities.

 

AI/ML-Ab(TM) combines the latest AI enabled technology for in silico design of
antibody sequences with Fusion's established core expertise in antibody
expression and evaluation. Furthermore, AI/ML-Ab(TM) can also employ Fusion's
recently announced proprietary Mammalian Display platform to enable screening
of focused libraries derived from AI/ML design outputs. By combining the two
approaches, clients will be able to screen thousands or even millions of
sequences rather than the tens or hundreds to which such projects tend to be
restricted. Increasing the number of sequences to be screened by a factor of
1,000 or more significantly enhances the prospects of finding the most
appropriate leads from AI/ML discovery projects, not only de-risking this
novel cutting-edge approach to antibody discovery but also achieving this at a
significantly lower cost per sequence.

 

Fusion collaborates with its clients in every stage of pre-clinical antibody
development, with decades of experience and unique proprietary platforms. A
fully integrated end-to-end service from therapeutic target nomination and
discovery through to stable cell line development in readiness for GMP
production is also available.

 

The Company is continuing to work on other aspects of the OptiMAL® programme,
and in particular the development of the fully human antibody library.

 

Fusion Antibodies CEO, Adrian Kinkaid said: "We are delighted to be able to
announce the successful delivery of the AI/ML-Ab(TM) service utilizing our
established production and evaluation capabilities and an option to include
our proprietary Mammalian Display technology, which can significantly improve
success rates, output affinities while reducing the cost per sequence test to
as little as 1% of the cost of lower throughput methods. The Mammalian Display
technology is an output from our OptiMAL® research programme. As our industry
rapidly turns to find new ways to hasten the discovery of better
bio-therapeutics to take to the clinic, we anticipate deploying these
capabilities to ensure Fusion is at the forefront of Antibody discovery and
development process including those using AI/ML."

 

Enquiries:

 

 Fusion Antibodies plc                                               www.fusionantibodies.com
 Adrian Kinkaid, Chief Executive Officer                             Via Walbrook PR

 Richard Buick, Chief Scientific Officer

 Allenby Capital Limited                                             Tel: +44 (0)20 3328 5656
 James Reeve/Vivek Bhardwaj (Corporate Finance)

 Tony Quirke/Joscelin Pinnington (Sales and Corporate Broking)

 Walbrook PR                       Tel: +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or fusion@walbrookpr.com
 Anna Dunphy                                                         Mob: +44 (0)7876 741 001

 

About Fusion Antibodies plc

 

Fusion is a Belfast based contract research organisation ("CRO") providing a
range of antibody engineering services for the development of antibodies for
both therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications.

 

The Company's ordinary shares were admitted to trading on AIM on 18 December
2017. Fusion provides a broad range of services in antibody generation,
development, production, characterisation and optimisation. These services
include antigen expression, antibody production, purification and sequencing,
antibody humanisation using Fusion's proprietary CDRx (TM) platform and the
production of antibody generating stable cell lines to provide material for
use in clinical trials. Since 2012, the Company has successfully sequenced
and expressed over 250 antibodies and successfully completed over 200
humanisation projects and has an international, blue-chip client base, which
has included eight of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies by revenue.

 

The Company was established in 2001 as a spin out from Queen's University
Belfast. The Company's mission is to enable pharmaceutical and diagnostic
companies to develop innovative products in a timely and cost-effective manner
for the benefit of the global healthcare industry. Fusion Antibodies provides
a broad range of services in antibody generation, development, production,
characterisation and optimisation.

 

Fusion Antibodies growth strategy is based on combining the latest
technological advances with cutting edge science to deliver new platforms that
will enable Pharma and Biotech companies get to the clinic faster, with the
optimal drug candidate and ultimately speed up the drug development process.

 

The global monoclonal antibody therapeutics market was valued at $135.4
billion in 2018 and is forecast to surpass $212.6 billion in 2022, an increase
at a CAGR of 12.0 per cent. for the period 2018 to 2022. In 2017, seven of the
world's ten top selling drugs were antibody-based therapeutics with the
combined annual sales of these drugs exceeding $63.2 billion.

 

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