AbbVie Collaborates with BigHat Biosciences on Next-Gen Therapeutic Antibodies

On Dec. 5, 2023, AbbVie and BigHat Biosciences, a US-based biotech firm, announced that they have entered into a research collaboration to discover and develop next-generation therapeutic antibodies in oncology and neuroscience. The collaboration will utilize BigHat’s Milliner platform, which is a suite of machine learning (ML) technologies integrated with a high-speed wet lab, to guide the design and selection of high-quality antibodies.

Under the agreement, BigHat will receive an upfront payment of $30 million and may be eligible for up to approximately $325 million in R&D milestones. The company also has the potential to further earn commercial milestone payments as well as tiered royalties on net sales.

"This collaboration further demonstrates our commitment to integrate AI [artificial intelligence]/ML-based approaches in drug discovery and development, as we strive to accelerate our oncology and neuroscience pipeline, and deliver better medicines faster," said Jonathon Sedgwick, vice-president and global head of discovery research at AbbVie, in a company press release. "We look forward to working with BigHat's team to design novel antibody-based therapies that may help address persistent unmet needs faced by patients."

"We are thrilled to collaborate with AbbVie, a global leader in driving innovation in drug development, and look forward to employing our Milliner platform to help design next-generation therapeutic antibodies," said Mark DePristo, CEO, BigHat, in the release. "Milliner allows rapid optimization of multiple key parameters, including functionality and developability, to help deliver complex antibodies with improved characteristics faster."

This collaboration follows AbbVie’s earlier move to acquire ImmunoGen for $10.1 billion.

Source: AbbVie