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AbbVie’s Big Moves; Expanding with One Company, Cutting Ties with Another
American biopharmaceutical behemoth, AbbVie, announced that it intends to expand its collaboration with Dragonfly Therapeutics and their TriNKET technology while cutting ties with several-year collaboration partner BioArctic. Both decisions come at a critical time in the development of all three companies.
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Building on Dragonfly’s TriNKET Immunotherapy
AbbVie and Dragonfly first initiated their collaboration in November 2019, with TriNKET technology being the primary focus. TriNKET remains the center of the expansion, with AbbVie stating it intends to include more immunology targets in the future.
Dragonfly’s TriNKET immunotherapy technology is their proprietary product designed to leverage the body’s natural immune system to target cancer cells. It can do this by stimulating Natural Killer (NK) cells to direct T-cells to attack cancer cells while encouraging B-cells to bolster the level of anti-tumor antibodies. In turn, both NK cells and T-cells attack cancer while B-cells defend it more heavily than they would otherwise.
AbbVie has been pleased with the collaboration so far. Vice President and Global Head of Discovery Research at Abbvie, Dr. Jonathan Sedgwick, said, “We have seen strong progress in our current collaboration with Dragonfly focused on their triNKET technology and are pleased to expand our partnership to include additional immunology targets of interest to AbbVie.”
The expansion will include an undisclosed upfront payment with the potential for future success-based milestone payments.
AbbVie’s Uncoupling From BioArctic
AbbVie and BioArctic have worked together since 2016, developing alpha-synuclein antibodies to treat Parkinson’s Disease. The main asset developed to integrate this technology was ABBV-0805 which led to a Phase 1 study in 2019 and subsequently a Phase 2 study in 2021.
BioArctic, founded in 2003, has spent its time researching and developing therapies for diseases that affect the central nervous system. ABBV-0805 showed promise in initial studies by using monoclonal antibodies to eliminate oligomers and protofibrils in hopes of slowing Parkison’s Disease progression.
BioArctic was left bitter after the decision, with their Ceo, Gunilla Osswald, remarking, “We are disappointed that AbbVie has taken this decision … We believe that ABBV-0805 has the potential to become a disease-modifying treatment for people with Parkinson’s disease and will now investigate options to continue the development of this asset.”
Moving Forward for AbbVie
Despite the separation from BioArctic, AbbVie is still a driving force in the industry. AbbVie has shown consistent revenue increases every year since its inception, with 2021 raking in $56.1 billion in revenue.
AbbVie’s 46,000+ employees are sure to stay busy in the coming years as the mammoth company continues to grow. The company has dozens of drugs currently on the market, with dozens more in the pipeline for potential future use.
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