AbbVie has announced the acquisition of DJS Antibodies (DJS), a privately-held UK-based biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing antibody medicines that target difficult-to-drug disease-causing proteins, including G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).
The acquisition will grant AbbVie access to DJS’ lead programme, DJS-002, a potential first-in-class lysophosphatidic acid receptor 1 antagonist antibody currently in investigational preclinical studies for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and other fibrotic diseases.
IPF is an aggressive, high mortality disease caused by fibrotic scarring in the lungs and remains an area of high unmet medical need, AbbVie reports.
Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will pay approximately $255m in cash to DJS shareholders, who will remain eligible for additional payments upon achievement of certain development milestones related to the success of the DJS-002 programme. The company also outlined its plans to retain all current DJS employees and its facility in Oxford.
In addition to DJS-002, the biotech’s proprietary HEPTAD platform, a novel approach to antibody discovery with specific capabilities targeting transmembrane protein targets, will be a key benefit to AbbVie and complement the company’s current capabilities in biotherapeutics research.
Specifically, DJS will leverage AbbVie’s extensive drug discovery knowledge to continue generating antibody therapeutics and novel biology insights against targets like GPCRs, which have previously been intractable to biologics approaches.
We are excited to bring the innovative science behind DJS-002 and the talented team at DJS to AbbVie,” said Jonathon Sedgwick, vice president and global head of discovery research, AbbVie. “This acquisition will deliver new capabilities to enhance our current antibody research activities, an opportunity to strengthen our immunology portfolio, and provide a strong foothold for expanded research efforts in the dynamic bioscience hub in Oxford, UK.”
Also commenting on the acquisition, David Llewellyn and Joe Illingworth, co-founders of DJS, said: “DJS was built on the principles of scientific curiosity and an aspiration to discover clinically meaningful innovative medicines. We’ve been privileged to grow the company within the world-class scientific and entrepreneurial community of Oxford, from an initial concept through to a successful biotech comprising an extremely talented team.
“The whole team is incredibly excited to take the next step in this journey with AbbVie as we work together to accelerate the translation of our lead programme into the clinic and develop an exciting research centre here in the UK.”