Adaptive Biotechnologies and Amgen collaborate to help address the COVID-19 pandemic

Adaptive Biotechnologies and Amgen have collaborated to help address the COVID-19 pandemic by combining their expertise to develop antibodies to prevent and treat the virus. The collaboration brings Amgen’s expertise in immunology and novel antibody therapy development and Adaptive Biotechnologies’ proprietary immune medicine platform. The antibodies could be used to treat people fighting the virus and to people who’re at high risk of exposure to SARS-Cov-2. The two companies, who have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, will start work immediately.

CEO and Chairman of Amgen, Robert A. Bradway, stated: “Our strong history of collaboration with Adaptive gives us the ability to immediately mobilize our combined resources to help address the urgency in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. After swiftly obtaining viral gene sequences from hundreds of patients, Amgen was motivated to use these insights and quickly pair them with our drug development and manufacturing capabilities. Working with Adaptive and using their viral neutralizing antibody platform will expedite our ability to bring a promising new medicine into clinical trials as quickly as possible.”

CEO and Co-Founder, Adaptive Biotechnologies, Chad Robins, stated: “We are extremely motivated to join forces with our trusted partner, Amgen, to tackle this global health crisis. This partnership expands our drug discovery capabilities, demonstrating the power and versatility of our immune medicine platform.”