At the beginning of May, the Government of Canada committed $175.6m in funding to Vancouver-based AbCellera Biologics, a biotech company focused on developing antibody-based drugs.
The funding came through the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development鈥檚 Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF). This support for AbCellera鈥檚 work comes as part of the government鈥檚 Plan to Mobilise Science against Covid-19, which aims to support national projects that will contribute to the global race against Covid-19, as well as improve the country鈥檚 resilience against future pandemics.
AbCellera is leveraging its proprietary antibody drug discovery technology to help identify antibodies from blood samples of recovered Covid-19 patients for drug development against the novel coronavirus causing this disease, SARS-CoV-2.
Canada鈥檚 Minister of Innovation Navdeep Bains commented: 鈥淥ur government is mobilising its resources to confront Covid-19, supporting the researchers and businesses that are working hard to develop medical countermeasures to beat this pandemic.
鈥淭oday鈥檚 contribution will support AbCellera as they use their world-leading technology to rapidly identify antibodies that could be used to develop a treatment for Covid-19 while ensuring Canada鈥檚 long-term preparedness for future health challenges.鈥�
Exploring AbCellera鈥檚 approach against Covid-19
鈥淧rior to AbCellera鈥檚 technology, finding the right antibody was a painstaking process that could take years and often didn鈥檛 yield the best results,鈥� the company鈥檚 CEO Carl Hansen explains.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don鈥檛 let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData鈥淎bCellera鈥檚 drug discovery platform combines high-throughput microfluidics, big data, machine learning, and genomics to search and analyse the immune system to find the best antibodies against a disease or virus,鈥� he adds. 鈥淥ur technology is the one fo the only in the world that can screen millions of cells, do next-generation sequencing and quickly down-select the best antibodies at this speed.鈥�
After first receiving samples from recovered patients in late February, AbCellera quickly applied its microfluidics technology to identify over 500 unique human anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID).
鈥淭hese antibodies target this virus specifically, and can be rapidly developed into a treatment,鈥� explains Hansen. 鈥淚n our real-time response to Covid-19, we were able to go from a recovered patient sample to a group of lead drug candidates in just 3 weeks 鈥� a process that normally takes a decade.鈥�
The company claims to have found 24 drug leads in just 23 days.
While still screening antibodies, AbCellera signed an agreement with Eli Lilly to advance the most advanced antibody identified into manufacturing. Hansen explains: 鈥淭he plan is to submit an IND [investigational new drug] application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this month and start clinical testing in patients shortly thereafter. For this programme, Lilly has the know-how, technologies, facilities and infrastructure to quickly manufacture antibody drugs and then to bring them into clinical trials.鈥�
Discussing the collaboration when it was first agreed in March, Lilly chief scientific officer Daniel Skovronsky commented: “We’ve partnered with AbCellera because we’re impressed with the speed and quality of their efforts. We are moving at top speed to create a potential treatment to help patients.
鈥淲hile typically a new therapeutic antibody programme might take years to get in the clinic, our goal with AbCellera is to be testing potential new therapies in patients within the next four months.”
Improving future pandemic resilience
In addition to supporting AbCellera in its current efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the Canadian Government鈥檚 funding will be used to improve the company鈥檚 ability to respond quicker to future pandemic outbreaks.
Hansen explains that, in the first phase of the project, a portion of the funding will be used to 鈥渋mprove and apply AbCellera鈥檚 antibody discovery platform to identify fully human antibodies for the potential prevention and treatment of Covid-19 and future pandemics鈥�.
The second phase will support AbCellera in building a 鈥淕ood Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility in Vancouver鈥�, which 鈥渨ill be the first in Canada capable of going from a patient sample to manufacturing antibodies for clinical testing鈥�.听Supporting this GMP facility is in line with the government鈥檚 plan to ensure the country learns lessons from Covid-19 and can respond better to future pandemics.听
Spotlight on Canada鈥檚 SIF
Although AbCellera鈥檚 funding of $175.6m is a significant chunk of the $275m set aside in the ; another company that has received Canadian Government support through this fund is Medicago.
Headquartered in Quebec City, Medicago is developing a plant-based vaccine candidate against Covid-19. This candidate, which is based on a virus-like-particle, was created within 20 days of receiving the SARS-CoV-2 gene.
Last week, the company announced positive results from animal trials of its candidate. As a result of this data, Medicago is planning to initiate a clinical study in healthy volunteers this summer, following approval from Health Canada and the US FDA.
Medicago鈥檚 CEO and president Dr. Bruce D. Clark commented: “We are grateful to the Government of Canada, without whom the advancement of this project through the final phase of development would not be possible.
鈥淭he cost of such development is a major obstacle for growing companies like ours, which must spend hundreds of millions of dollars to bring a product to market.
鈥淐ovid-19 was not on any company鈥檚 radar, and that鈥檚 why financial support from governments is so important.鈥�
