Press Release: Adimmune Outsourcing to Abnova for Development of Antibody Pair for Enterovirus (EV71) Virus Quantification in Human Vaccine Production

Abnova Corporation announced today that it has been granted a custom contract from Adimmune for development of antibody pair for EV7 virus quantification during human vaccine production. Precise detection and quantification of EV71 inactivated and live virus is a critical step in vaccine development and manufacturing. While many EV71 antibody pairs and ELISA kits are available commercially, these kits are biased toward detection of inactivated EV71 virus and for research-use-only (RUO), instead of more stringent GMP grade for in-process quality control and in vitro diagnostic (IVD) applications. Moreover, sensitivity and specificity of these ELISA kits do not achieve the high standards required by diagnostic and therapeutic industry. There has been a large increase in EV71 epidemic activity throughout the Asia-Pacific region since 1997. An effective and clinically approved EV71 vaccine is not yet available.

“We are very excited to gain this special contract from Adimmune Corporation, allowing both companies to work together toward preventing EV71 infection and improving public health in Asia,” said Dr. Wilber Huang, President and CEO of Abnova. “It is a great opportunity for Abnova to become ever more intricately linked with the drug community by applying its cumulative expertise and infrastructure in antibody manufacturing and protein-based quantification. Abnova has established a breadth of antibody technologies encompassing the conventional mouse monoclonal antibody and rabbit polyclonal antibody, to the new rabbit monoclonal antibody platform. Abnova has also built a state-of-the-art, ISO13485 and GMP certified facility for ELISA kit production to meet the requirement of its customers. Notably, Adimmune is the only human vaccine company in Taiwan. This project carries a special meaning which transcends a custom project but a stepping stone and model for collaboration in local biotech industry.”

“Outsourcing EV71 antibody pair development to Abnova facilitates Adimmune to efficiently allocate and focus its resources in EV71 vaccine development and scale-up manufacturing,” said Chairman Chang Ching-Chuan of Adimmune Corporation. “It is an expedient way to achieve our goal by leveraging the core competence of both companies. We wanted a EV71 virus quantification system which has high consistency without the lot-to-lot variation, which is a major handicap in the current commercial kits. The ability to detect live EV71 virus is paramount to our undertaking. Working with a local company also obviates the need for virus shipment outside of Taiwan. Moreover, Abnova has the infrastructure to help us to develop the antibody pair into a standardized ELISA kit for ease of use and manufacturing quality control. We are aiming for 2016 to have a EV71 vaccine available in the commercial setting.”

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About Abnova

Abnova has established a comprehensive spectrum of integrated solutions and services to address the needs of the diagnostic and therapeutic companies. From antibody component to module to system, Abnova provides its customers access to the new rabbit monoclonal antibody, antibody pairing and ELISA kit for protein quantification, antibody-based high throughput immunoprecipitation, protein-protein interaction, isolation of circulating tumor cells, and biomarker discovery via reverse phase protein profiling. Abnova’s facility is ISO13485 and GMP certified for immunohistochemistry, ELISA kit, and FISH probes.(www.abnova.com)