Crystal Bioscience, BI Set to Collaborate on Antibody Discovery

California-based Crystal Bioscience and Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim have inked a deal to collaborate on discovering and developing therapeutic antibodies, the drugmakers said Tuesday.

Under the terms of the deal, Crystal will utilize its gel encapsulated microenvironment and its chicken immunization projects, which BI hopes to take advantage of to find new and better therapies to targets identified by its German partner, said BI spokesperson Reinhard Malin.

“BI has extraordinary capabilities at identifying and validating targets and we’re using our technology to identify very rare antibodies that are not accessible using conventional methods,” Crystal CEO Rob Etches told Drug Daily Bulletin.

The German drugmaker may then conduct subsequent development and marketing of the antibodies. Crystal will receive a technology access fee and research funding for each program, with optional achievement milestone fees and exercise fees. — Lena Freund

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