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ABL Bio CEO CEO Sang Hoon Lee said an agreement with GSK \"will serve as a great opportunity to strengthen ABL Bio\'s position in the neurodegenerative disease treatment market.\"\n GSK has continued to flesh out its neuroscience strategy with a 2 billion pound sterling ($2.5 billion) deal to use a South Korean company’s tech to bypass the blood-brain barrier.ABL Bio has developed its Grabody-B platform to target the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) in order to help transport drugs for neurodegenerative disease over the notoriously tricky barrier and into the brain.The Seongnam, South Korea-based biotech has agreed to transfer “Grabody-B-related technology and know-how” to GSK, according to a Monday, April 7 release, with the British Big Pharma taking responsibility for developing any resulting drugs from preclinical work through to commercialization.In return, GSK will hand over 38.5 million pounds ($49.5 million) upfront, with another 38.6 million pounds ($49.6 million) potentially to follow in near-term payments. When longer-term research, development and commercialization payments are also taken into account, as well as the option for GSK to expand the scope of the program, the total biobucks attached to the deal swells to 2.07 billion pounds ($2.5 billion).GSK expanded its neuroscience credentials at the end of last year, penning a pact with Danish biotech Muna Therapeutics to examine postmortem human brains in efforts to identify several new drug targets for Alzheimer’s disease. This was on top of an agreement with Flagship-founded Vesalius Therapeutics that included a preclinical small molecule initially targeting Parkinson’s disease.“There is a critical need for new therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative brain diseases, which are rapidly increasing in prevalence due to the aging of the population,” Christopher Austin, M.D., senior vice president of research technologies for GSK, said in this morning’s release.“Many of the most promising new therapies are antibodies, which cannot efficiently reach the brain without a shuttle to get them across the [blood brain barrier],” Austin added. “This agreement reflects our commitment to innovative platform technologies to overcome the BBB and thus open entirely new opportunities for treating these devastating diseases, an important component of our emerging pipeline.”ABL has already been tapped up by the likes of Sanofi and I-Mab to work on bispecific antibodies for Parkinson’s and gastric cancer, respectively.In the release, the biotech’s CEO Sang Hoon Lee said the agreement with GSK “will serve as a great opportunity to strengthen ABL Bio\'s position in the neurodegenerative disease treatment market through the potential commercialization of Grabody-B and to expand the modality areas where Grabody-B can be utilized.\"“Given the increasing number of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer\'s and Parkinson\'s diseases, we hope this partnership will accelerate the development of innovative treatments and bring renewed hope to patients worldwide,” the CEO added.

South Korean biotech ABL Bio has lined up another platform license agreement with a European pharma giant in the area of neurodegenerative diseases. ABL Bio has now garnered the interest of GSK, which will hand over £38.5 million ($49.5 million) in an immediate upfront payment, three years after it signed on Sanofi as a partner. GSK has also promised up to £2.075 billion ($2.67 billion) in R&D, regulatory and commercialization biobucks, according to a Sunday evening press release . The move gives the UK drugmaker access to ABL’s so-called Grabody-B platform, which helps medicines make it across the blood-brain barrier, a key hurdle for many brain health treatments. GSK could develop antibody medicines, siRNA treatments, antisense oligonucleotides or other types of drugs using the platform, ABL said. “Many of the most promising new therapies are antibodies, which cannot efficiently reach the brain without a shuttle to get them across the BBB,” GSK’s SVP of research technologies Christopher Austin said in a statement. GSK’s neuroscience pipeline includes a Phase 3 frontotemporal dementia treatment prospect, a Phase 2 Alzheimer’s disease experimental medicine and earlier-stage work. GSK has been active on the neuroscience dealmaking front. The company forged an Alzheimer’s partnership with Muna Therapeutics for €33.5 million upfront in December. It bought a small molecule treatment candidate for Parkinson’s disease from Flagship’s Vesalius Therapeutics in November. While ABL was responsible for leading Phase 1 development in its Sanofi tie-up, GSK wants more direct involvement in its pact. GSK will drive preclinical and clinical work, according to the announcement. “Given the increasing number of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, we hope this partnership will accelerate the development of innovative treatments and bring renewed hope to patients worldwide,” ABL CEO Sang Hoon Lee said in a statement. The Seongnam-based biotech’s shares traded up nearly 30% on the Kosdaq stock exchange in reaction to the news. ABL also counts I-Mab, Compass and others as partners.

The properties of the blood-brain barrier serve a vital protective role, but they also keep drugs from reaching the organ. Big pharmaceutical companies have been making deals for technologies that could help them get their molecules through this protective membrane and now GSK is joining in, striking up an alliance that gives it a new way to shuttle drugs into the brain to treat neurodegeneration. The agreement announced Monday gives GSK access to a platform technology developed by ABL Bio. Specific diseases covered by the pact were not disclosed. The deal kicks off with GSK paying South Korea-based ABL £38.5 million (about $49.1 million) up front. The drug delivery approach of ABL is based on Grabody, a platform technology that develops bispecific antibodies, proteins engineered to bind to two targets. For treating brain diseases, the bispecific antibodies from Grabody contain a domain designed to bind to insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R), a receptor that transports proteins across the blood-brain barrier. The other binding domain is designed to go after the desired target for treating a brain disorder. Sponsored Post Changes in Nurse Staffing Answer Clinician Demands The ongoing nursing shortage facilitates high turnover rates since nurses know they won’t have difficulties finding new jobs. In order to retain and attract staff, it’s in a facility’s best interest to understand what nurses want. By Tomasz Rezik GSK and ABL aren’t disclosing the brain targets they’re pursuing. But the agreement covers multiple programs for novel targets that could be treated with various therapeutic modalities. For example, they say an ABL brain drug could be used to deliver genetic medicines to the brain, such as a small-interfering RNA drugs or antisense oligonucleotides. ABL’s most advanced brain program is a Parkinson’s disease drug candidate in development under a partnership with Sanofi. The brain target of this preclinical drug, ABL301, is alpha-synuclein. While that protein is also the target of other Parkinson’s drug candidates, ABL contends the bispecific approach of its drug could more efficiently target alpha-synuclein compared to traditional monoclonal antibodies. Under GSK’s deal, ABL will transfer to the pharma giant technology and know-how related to the Grabody-B platform. GSK will take on responsibility for preclinical and clinical development, along with manufacturing and potential commercialization. Depending on the progress of the research, ABL could receive up to £2.075 billion (about $2.6 billion) in milestone payments, plus royalties if any drugs resulting from collaboration reach the market. “Many of the most promising new therapies are antibodies, which cannot efficiently reach the brain without a shuttle to get them across the [blood-brain barrier],” Christopher Austin, senior vice president of research technologies, GSK, said in a prepared statement. “This agreement reflects our commitment to innovative platform technologies to overcome the BBB and thus open entirely new opportunities for treating these devastating diseases, an important component of our emerging pipeline.” presented by Sponsored Post What Are the Best Medical Coding Outsourcing Companies? Outsourcing your medical coding can help ensure a healthy revenue cycle. Discover the best medical coding outsourcing companies and find the right one for you. By Global Healthcare Resources GSK already has clinical-stage Alzheimer’s programs from a partnership with Alector that began 2021. Latozinemab (formerly AL001) is in Phase 3 testing; Alector has said it expects preliminary data by the end of 2025. AL101 (also known as GSK4527226) is in Phase 2. Both drugs are monoclonal antibodies intended to reduce degradation of progranulin, a protein that regulates immune activity in the brain. The targeting of a receptor to deliver a therapy across the blood-brain barrier gives GSK another way to potentially treat neurodegeneration, but it’s not alone in this approach, called receptor-mediated transcytosis. The platform technology of Aliada Therapeutics engineers antibodies to target the transferrin and CD98 receptors to transport molecules across the blood-brain barrier. Similar to ABL, Aliada said its technology can be applied to multiple types of therapeutic cargos, such as enzymes, proteins, and oligonucleotides. With the biotech’s lead program in early clinical development for Alzheimer’s disease, AbbVie last year agreed to pay $1.4 billion to acquire Aliada. ABL’s research also spans Grabody drugs in development for cancer. A partnership with I-Mab is developing PD-L1- and claudin 18.2-targeting drugs; both programs are in Phase 1 for solid tumors. The most advanced ABL program is ABL001 (also known as tovecimig), a VEGF-targeting drug in late-stage clinical development for biliary tract cancer among other cancer indications under a partnership with Compass Therapeutics.