Invetx Announces Industry-Leading Antibody Discovery Platform to Develop Portfolio of Novel Therapeutics for Animal Health
Platform Leverages Best-in-Class Technologies from AbCellera, Twist Bioscience and WuXi Biologics
BOSTON, Mass. – July 16, 2020 – Invetx, a pioneer in protein-based therapeutics for animal health, announced today the launch of its antibody-based platform for the discovery and development of novel medicines for animal health. The proprietary platform combines industry-leading technologies from partners AbCellera, Twist Bioscience and WuXi Biologics to develop fully species-specific, optimized and half-life-extended monoclonal antibodies (mABs) for veterinary use. Invetx has already built a robust pipeline of biotherapeutic programs from its platform and anticipates beginning pilot studies for the first candidates in 2020.
The Invetx platform integrates:
- monoclonal antibody drug lead generation from AbCellera, a leading biotech company specializing in antibody discovery from natural immune systems
- lead antibody engineering and optimization of candidate antibodies from Twist Biopharma, a division of Twist Bioscience (Nasdaq: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform
- state-of-the-art antibody development and manufacturing technologies from WuXi Biologics, a global company with leading biologics technology platforms
“By integrating these best-in-class technologies in a unique platform tailored to applications in animal health, Invetx is setting a new standard for advanced veterinary protein therapeutics,” said Juergen Horn, PhD, chief executive officer, Invetx. “Our vision is to bring next generation veterinary therapeutics to the market that address unmet needs with superior product profiles at affordable prices. Additionally, Invetx’s proprietary half-life extension technology will allow for significantly longer dosing intervals, making long-term treatments far more convenient for owners and their pets while helping to improve compliance.”
Invetx is developing a portfolio of novel products for chronic and serious conditions in pets with the goal to extend and improve their quality of life. The platform capabilities extend across a wide range of indications and targets, including challenging targets for drug discovery such as G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which account for a significant number of approved drugs in humans and which are also relevant in veterinary medicine. Invetx is initially focused on diseases in dogs and cats but is planning to apply its platform to indications in other species.
“AbCellera is proud to be a part of Invetx’s vision of bringing innovation and state-of-the-art technologies to the animal health market,” said Carl Hansen, PhD, chief executive officer of AbCellera. “There is an enormous opportunity to apply the lessons learned and advantages realized in human drug discovery to the benefit of veterinarians and pet owners.”
“We are excited to apply our synthetic human antibody engineering and optimization expertise to the field of animal health in collaboration with Invetx,” said Emily M. Leproust, PhD, chief executive officer and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “Like humans, animals also need targeted antibody therapeutics that address serious diseases, but limited access to cutting-edge antibody technologies have hampered development in the animal health field. By applying the same technology we use for human antibody discovery, we are able to engineer and optimize animal therapeutic antibodies.”
The global animal health medicines and vaccines market was estimated to be worth $34 billion in 2019. Its forecasted annual growth of more than six percent is driven by increasing pet ownership and spend as well as treatments and vaccines for farm animals. Although biopharmaceuticals dominate human drug development because of their long-lasting effects and ability to precisely address the molecular causes of disease, to date only one monoclonal antibody therapeutic is available for veterinary use in the United States and the European Union.
About Invetx
Invetx is building the world’s premier biotechnology platform for protein-based therapeutics in animal health to transform standards of care in veterinary medicine.
In February 2020, the company announced a $15M Series A financing and strategic partnerships with AbCellera, a biotech company specializing in antibody discovery located in Vancouver, BC and WuXi Biologics, a global company with leading biologics technology platforms. Invetx is a private company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, see invetx.com.
About AbCellera Biologics Inc.
AbCellera is a privately held biotech company with a drug discovery platform that searches and analyzes natural immune systems to find antibodies that can be used to prevent and treat disease. AbCellera’s technology, which combines high-throughput microfluidics, hyper-scale data science, machine learning, bioinformatics and genomics, identifies new first-in-class drugs and reduces the time it takes to bring treatments to the clinic. AbCellera’s partners include leading biotechnology companies, global health organizations and many of the top 10 biopharmaceutical companies. For more information, visit www.abcellera.com.
About Twist Bioscience
Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology and genomics company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes products for use across many industries including diagnostics, therapeutics, industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research. For more information visit www.twistbioscience and www.twistbiopharma.com.
About WuXi Biologics
WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK), a Hong Kong-listed company, is a leading global open-access biologics technology platform offering end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing. Our company history and achievements demonstrate our commitment to providing a truly one-stop service offering and strong value proposition to our global clients. As of December 31, 2019, there were a total of 250 integrated projects, including 121 projects in pre-clinical development stage, 112 projects in early-phase (phase I and II) clinical development, 16 projects in late-phase (phase III) development and one project in commercial manufacturing. With total estimated capacity for biopharmaceutical production planned in China, Ireland, the U.S., Germany and Singapore exceeding 280,000 liters by 2022, we will provide our biomanufacturing partners with a robust and premier-quality global supply chain network. For more information on WuXi Biologics, please visit www.wuxibiologics.com.
Contact Info:
Invetx partners and investors:
Juergen Horn, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
juergen.horn@invetx.com
Invetx media:
Susan Kinkead
susan@kinkeadcomm.com
415-509-3610
AbCellera:
Kevin Heyries, PhD, Head of Business Development
bd@abcellera.com
604-559-9005
Twist Bioscience
Investor contact:
Argot Partners
Maeve Conneighton
maeve@argotpartners.com
212-600-1902
Media contact:
Angela Bitting
media@twistbioscience.com
925-202-6211
WuXi Biologics media:
Kevin Huang, PhD
kevin_huang@wuxibiologics.com