WuXi Biologics, a global open-access biologics technology platform company offering end-to-end solutions for biologics discovery, development and manufacturing, and Almirall, a skin-health focused global pharmaceutical company, have signed a collaboration agreement enabling Almirall to leverage the proprietary WuXiBody platform to develop bispecific antibodies for dermatological diseases.
 
Almirall gains access to WuXi Biologics’ proprietary antibody platforms including WuXiBody, a versatile bispecific platform with flexible valency to fit target biology, to discover multiple novel bispecific antibodies. WuXi Biologics will receive an upfront payment as well as development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments for each bispecific antibody generated from this platform, and will also be entitled to royalties based on global sales generated by these projects.
 
“This agreement is a big step forward for us in our objective of becoming a leader in medical dermatology,” said Bhushan Hardas, chief scientific officer, Almirall. “With WuXi Biologics’ know-how in biologic technologies and Almirall’s expertise in dermatology, we will be able to identify bispecific antibodies as effective next-generation therapies for helping patients suffering from dermatological disorders.”
 
Chris Chen, chief executive officer, WuXi Biologics, said, “We are delighted to establish this collaboration with Almirall, the 12th global partnership since we launched this exciting platform in August 2018. This represents one further step in validating the power and versatile applications of WuXiBody in multiple therapeutic areas, underlining our leadership in next-generation biologic technologies and demonstrating our contributions to enable global partners to develop more new treatments for patients worldwide.”