ProBioGen and Chiome in Antibody Manufacturing Deal

ProBioGen, a service and technology provider for complex therapeutic glycoproteins, announced on Oct. 5, 2017 that it signed a service and license agreement with Chiome Bioscience, a Japanese antibody discovery and development company, to use ProBioGen’s cancer cell-killing technology, GlymaxX, for a clinical candidate in an antibody manufacturing program for Chiome.

Specifically, ProBioGen will develop a stable GlymaxX cell line and then will conduct process development and GMP manufacturing of the antibody, which is derived from antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC)-enhanced cancer stem cells. The antibody will be optimized for cancer cell-killing activity.

Dr. Koji Nakamura, head of drug discovery laboratories and former CEO of LivTech, an R&D and antibody drug discovery company acquired by Chiome in December 2013, explained in a company press release: “We have tested ProBioGen’s GlymaxX technology for our antibody before and saw in-vivo in animal models an obviously potentiated cancer cell-killing efficacy of its afucosylated version. This, together with our long-standing relationship with the ProBioGen team, the company’s demonstrated track record in developing stable cell lines up to reliable GMP manufacturing for small and big biotechs, and the favorable, royalty-free commercial GlymaxX Terms, made our selection quite simple.”

“We look much forward to a productive partnership which combines Chiome’s outstanding antibody drug candidate, LIV-1205, with our own antibody development expertise and our GlymaxX ADCC enhancement technology to make together with Chiome a marked contribution to combat various cancers,” said ProBioGen’s CEO Wieland Wolf in the release.