Sanofi and Kling Bio have entered into a partnership aimed at accelerating the discovery of neutralising antibodies.
The collaboration and licence option agreement will focus on identifying and characterising monoclonal antibodies with strong neutralising activity against a clinically relevant human viral pathogen.
It is hoped that these findings could lead to the development of next-generation antiviral therapeutics and inform the design of more effective vaccine candidates.
The alliance will centre on Kling’s B cell immortalisation and screening platform, Kling-Select, which is designed to improve vaccine and therapeutic design by enabling “rapid identification” of new antibodies and conserved viral epitopes, Kling said.
The technology has already identified new neutralising antibodies for various infectious diseases, including COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and has more recently been applied to peripheral and tumour-infiltrating B cells derived from cancer patients.
Kling’s chief executive officer, Michael Koslowski, said: “This collaboration with Sanofi highlights the broad potential of our Kling-Select platform to address global health challenges by enabling the discovery of first-in-class, human-derived antibodies.
“Kling-Select provides a powerful window into the human immune response and accelerates the identification of functional antibodies and novel epitopes. We are excited to combine our expertise with Sanofi’s leadership in vaccine development to advance next-generation therapeutics and vaccines.”
The partnership comes just days after Sanofi announced that it would be expanding its respiratory vaccines pipeline by acquiring UK-based Vicebio for up to $1.6bn.
The acquisition will include an early-stage combination vaccine candidate for RSV and human metapneumovirus (hMPV), a preclinical trivalent vaccine candidate targeting RSV, hMPV and parainfluenza virus Type 3 (PIV3), as well as Vicebio’s ‘Molecular Clamp’ technology.
The French group also announced last month that it would be bolstering its immunology capabilities by acquiring US-based Blueprint Medicines Corporation in a deal worth up to approximately $9.5bn, and revealed in May that it was planning to acquire Vigil Neuroscience and its investigational Alzheimer’s disease drug for approximately $470m.