AbCellera Biologics Inc. is a

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

-based biotechnology firm that researches and develops human antibodies. The company is best known for its leading role in the Pandemic Prevention Platform, a project of

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

's Biological Technologies Office. AbCellera utilizes a proprietary technology platform, which they claim can develop "medical countermeasures within 60 days." Its platform for single-cell screening was initially developed at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

History

AbCellera was founded in 2012 by biomedical researchers Carl Hansen, Véronique Lecault, Kevin Heyries, Daniel Da Costa and Oleh Petriv. In November 2016, the company received a 645K grant from the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...

to develop a test for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. In September 2018, a $10M

series A round A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

of funding was closed. In May 2020, a $105M

series B round A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

of funding was closed. In January 2017, AbCellera announced that it would be collaborating with

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...

to discover and develop antibodies against "undisclosed membrane protein targets.”

COVID-19 and expansion

In June 2020, AbCellera announced it had begun the world's first study of a potential

antibody An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique molecule of the ...

treatment against COVID-19, with a Phase 1 trial of LY-CoV555 (Bamlanivimab), in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company. The drug was granted an Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November 2020, and subsequently renewed in February and March 2021. The EUA was revoked in April 2021, with the FDA citing an updated conclusion that "the known and potential benefits of bamlanivimab alone no longer outweigh the known and potential risks for the product," because of significantly reduced efficacy against emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2. In November 2020, Peter Thiel joined AbCellera's board of directors and disclosed a 5.3% stake in the company. In September 2021, the company announced a multi-year agreement with Moderna to develop Messenger RNA, mRNA-based antibody treatments against multiple diseases. In January 2022, the company received a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to identify monoclonal antibodies against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). A second COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapy (Bebtelovimab) was given Emergency Use Authorization in February 2022, with the U.S. Government committing to a $720 million purchase of up to 600,000 doses. Other partnerships include collaborations with Ablynx, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Merck, Novartis, Sanofi and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

References

{{Vancouver Corporations Biotechnology companies of Canada Companies listed on the Nasdaq Canadian companies established in 2012 Companies based in Vancouver