Woburn Biotech Firm Receives $3.5 million Investment

Photo via Abpro website.

WOBURN, MA—Abpro, a biotechnology company located at 65 Cummings Park Drive in Woburn, announced has received a more than $3.5 million in investments from a Chinese biopharmaceutical company and other affiliates to co-develop new advances in biotechnology Wednesday.

According to its announcement, Abpro and Essex will co-develop multiple monoclonal antibodies in immuno-oncology and ophthalmology by leveraging Abpro’s DiversImmune platform. Abpro received a $3.5M equity investment from Essex Bio and an undisclosed amount from affiliates, as part of the agreement.

“This partnership with Essex Bio adds further validation to our discovery platform and provides an opportunity to advance novel therapeutics with one of the largest ophthalmology companies in China, which is the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world,” said Ian Chan, CEO of Abpro in the announcement. “This agreement results in a strong partnership with R&D efforts and significant capabilities both in the United States and China.”

According to the announcement, the companies will advance multiple assets through pre-clinical and clinical development and seek commercial authorizations. Essex Bio holds commercial rights to these assets in China, and Abpro retains commercialization rights in the U.S. and rest of world, excluding China, with cross-royalties from each region.

A report by Boston Business Journal states that Abpro uses synthetic biology to speed up the manufacturing of biomolecules for large pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly and Sanofi Genzyme.