Abzena : secures ADC manufacturing services contract

Abzena plc

Abzena secures contract for integrated ADC manufacturing services to US biotech company

Cambridge, UK, 11 December 2017- Abzena plc (AIM: ABZA, 'Abzena' or the 'Group'), a life sciences group providing services and technologies enabling the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, has entered into a Master Services Agreement with a US biotech company to provide process development and manufacturing services to progress a novel antibody-drug conjugate ('ADC') towards clinical trials.

The value of the entire process development and GMP manufacturing services exceeds $5 million, with the majority of the services to be provided within the next 12 months. The services will be carried out principally by Abzena's chemistry and biomanufacturing groups in Bristol, PA and San Diego, CA.

Abzena has worked with the US-based company for a number of years, with the relationship built around Abzena's chemistry services. Following the initial chemistry development, Abzena subsequently developed a cell line that will now be used to produce the antibody at its GMP manufacturing facility. Abzena will also conduct GMP production of the ADC payload reagent and the conjugation process to create the ADC for initial clinical study.

In entering into the Master Services Agreement with Abzena, the US biotech company has selected Abzena as its preferred chemistry services and manufacturing provider for its ADC program.

John Burt, CEO of Abzena, said:'Since the expansion of Abzena's service offering into the US with two acquisitions in 2015, we have seen a number of customer relationships expand. They are using more of our services across the Group's biology, chemistry and manufacturing capabilities.

'This latest deal further consolidates our existing relationship with our customer. Drawing on Abzena's integrated service offering, this ADC can progress through the preclinical and clinical trial process, with the ultimate goal of developing a new potential treatment.'

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Notes to Editors

Abzena (AIM: ABZA) provides proprietary technologies and complementary services to enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products.

The term 'ABZENA Inside' is used by Abzena to describe products that have been created using its proprietary technologies and are being developed by its partners, and include Composite Human Antibodies™ and ThioBridge™ Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Abzena has the potential to earn future licence fees, milestone payments and/or royalties on 'ABZENA Inside' products.

Abzena offers the following services and technologies across its principal sites in Cambridge (UK), San Diego, California (USA) and Bristol, Pennsylvania (USA):

· Immunology research studies, including immunogenicity assessment of candidate biopharmaceutical products;

· Protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins;

· Cell line development for the manufacture of recombinant proteins and antibodies;

· Contract process development and GMP manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins for preclinical and clinical studies;

· Contract synthetic chemistry and bioconjugation research services, focused on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs);

· Proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies and novel payloads for ADC development; and

· GMP manufacturer of ADC linkers, payloads & combined linker-payloads.

For more information, please seewww.abzena.com