VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AbCellera Biologics, Inc. announced today a new therapeutic antibody discovery collaboration with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE). AbCellera will apply its proprietary monoclonal antibody (mAb) screening platform to attempt to discover function-modulating antibodies against undisclosed membrane protein targets. 

Carl Hansen, founding CEO of AbCellera, commented: "We are increasingly recognized as a leader in high-performance antibody discovery. Our platform allows us to screen natural immune repertoires with unparalleled depth to unlock the most challenging discovery programs. This partnership reinforces our commitment to offer leading-edge antibody discovery capabilities and to create value for companies by providing access to our platform. We welcome the opportunity to work closely with the innovative team at Pfizer and look forward to building a lasting relationship."

"We are pleased to work with the team at AbCellera using their innovative antibody discovery platform," said Will Somers, Vice President of Biomedicines Design, Pfizer. "We hope this platform can aid in our research as we look to bring novel medicines to patients, seeking to discover modulators of a transmembrane protein in a therapeutically important target class."

Under the terms of the agreement, AbCellera will receive an upfront payment and research support, and will be eligible to receive up to approximately $90 million in contingent milestone payments, as well as tiered mid-to-low single digit royalty payments based on Pfizer's development and commercialization of antibodies that may be generated under this collaboration. Further terms of the agreement are not disclosed.

About AbCellera Biologics, Inc. 

AbCellera is a privately held biotechnology company that provides enabling technologies for the discovery and development of monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies directly from natural immune cells.

AbCellera's lead technology is a proprietary single cell antibody discovery platform that provides pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners with the ability to rapidly identify mAb therapeutic candidates from the natural immune repertoires of any species, including humans.