BioNtech swallows MAB Discovery antibody unit

Under the terms of the agreement, BioNTech will acquire all assets, employees and proprietary know-how for mAb generation from MAB Discovery. However, MAB Discovery will retain ownership of and all rights to both its proprietary preclinical development pipeline and its existing third-party service agreements. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The acquisition will be completed by the end Q1/2019.

With the deal BioNtech complements its portfolio of technologies to generate a pipeline of bi-specific T cell engaging antibodies, individualised mRNA-based cancer vaccines, and adoptive T-cell therapies. Specifically, BioNtech will use MAB Discovery's platform together with proprietary technologies to generate mRNA-encoded intracellulary expressed antibodies for adoptive cell therapies.

"The technology will be utilised with our existing proprietary platforms including RiboMABS^®, a platform for generating a novel class of mRNA-encoded antibody drug candidates,” said Ugur Sahin, CEO and Co-Founder of BioNTech. In 2017, BioNTech reported on the application of this technology for mRNA-based in vivo delivery of T cell-engaging bispecific antibodies for the potential treatment of cancer.

The sell-off of its service unit reflects a strategic move of MAB Discovery. “MAB Discovery will now focus on further developing its proprietary mAbs with external partners,” explained Dr. Stephan Fischer, CEO of MAB Discovery.