adMare Launches Abdera with AbCellera as a Founding Partner
adMare BioInnovations, Canada's global life sciences venture, is pleased to announce the launch of Abdera Therapeutics Inc. (Abdera) with founding partner, AbCellera (Nasdaq: ABCL). Abdera is a precision oncology company developing novel next-generation targeted alpha therapies (TATs) for patients with relapsed, refractory and metastatic cancers. The seed financing of Abdera includes a total commitment of CAD $8 million. Abdera will leverage AbCellera's antibody discovery platform to develop antibody-based TATs against nine (9) clinically-validated oncology targets. Under the agreement, AbCellera will receive equity and research payments and is eligible to receive downstream clinical and commercial milestone payments and royalties on net sales of products.
"The adMare team is proud to launch our third new well-funded company this fiscal year. Canada has already demonstrated its global leadership in radioisotope-based healthcare technologies, and we have unique infrastructure that provides a competitive advantage," said Gordon C. McCauley, adMare President and CEO. "Our team has been working on the substance of Abdera for three years, and now we are ready to show why Canada and Abdera will become a world leader in developing related novel therapeutics."
TATs are a potentially transformative new class of drugs based on therapeutic antibodies armed with high-energy radioisotopes that emit alpha particles to selectively destroy cancer tumor cells. Abdera's core technology comprises a proprietary and modular radioimmunoconjugate platform that is optimized to selectively deliver radioisotopes, including Actinium-225. Abdera will use its platform to enable the rapid development of a broad range of safe and efficacious therapies that will serve patients with limited treatment options.
"Our antibody discovery operating system provides a powerful vehicle for quick and efficient venture creation," said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., CEO and President of AbCellera. "By partnering with AbCellera, the Abdera team can focus on developing their proprietary technology and creating new therapies for patients with cancer."
Abdera's founding management team is comprised of leading biopharmaceutical industry executives, including adMare Venture Partner Dr. Lana Janes, who will act as the company's Interim Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Janes brings over 20 years of global pharmaceutical development expertise that spans the full life cycle of therapeutic product development. She is joined by Dr. Michael Abrams, one of Canada's most successful scientist entrepreneurs, as Chief Scientific Officer, and Dr. Adam Judge as Senior Vice President, Biology; and will be supported by adMare's deep research and development and business teams.
"In building Abdera, we identified the most promising early-stage technologies for this high-potential area of drug development together with a proven executive team," said Dr. Lana Janes. "With Abdera's deep biologics and radiotherapeutics commercial experience, our founding partner AbCellera's leading antibody discovery platform, and the full force of the adMare enterprise behind us, we look forward to identifying therapies for patients without treatment options today."