Immune Biosolutions
Strengthening Human Immunity with Avian DNA

In the wake of COVID-19, came a rush to discover a therapy to fight the novel coronavirus. Faced with a biological antigen with no prior history, scientists and drug developers poured resources and decades of knowledge into developing a solution to build human immunity against the virus. In the process, new immunotherapeutic approaches got a push. Training the human immune system to release antibodies to fight specific antigens began to be explored in depth—not just for SARS-Cov-2, but for other disease-causing biological agents. An effective method for antibody discovery remained elusive— until Immune Biosolutions stepped into the picture, with a novel immunotherapeutic approach to antibody development in humans.

“We use chicken genetics as a main model to develop our antibodies and to identify strong binders against mammalian or human targets,” says Luc Paquet, CEO of Immune Biosolutions.

The biopharmaceutical company develops safe and high-affinity humanized antibodies to combat biological antigens, in collaboration with biotech and pharma companies through its robust antibody discovery technology platform.

Immune Biosolutions’ specialized antibody discovery platform is equipped with a highly optimized workflow—from antigen representation, through the immunization process, to antibody screening and product validation. The platform explores the immune systems of chickens to uncover and develop next-generation immunotherapies that fortify human immune systems.

Human and chicken DNA have many similarities, but have evolved separately for the last 300 million years, making the latter a great candidate for developing antibodies relevant to the human immune system.

Leveraging the avian DNA, the company seeks to develop antibodies against those difficult-to-fight biologic antigens that don’t elicit defensive or offensive responses from the immune system of mammalian cells. The use of chicken DNA places Immune Biosolutions among those at greater advantage in the immunotherapy space.

Immune Biosolutions started out a decade back as an antibody discovery company selling their antibodies to research markets and academic fields, eventually pivoting to offering its services to pharma and biotech companies for several years. Since then, Immune Biosolutions has come a long way in independently discovering and developing clinical stage therapeutic antibodies. The last pivot was primarily courtesy of COVID-19, which pushed the company to accelerate immunotherapy development with funding support from both government and private entities.

To drive its antibody discovery potential further, Immune Biosolutions utilized the funds to upgrade its platform in preparation for the next possible pandemic. The platform is also being used to combat the novel coronavirus with human trials of their inhalation-based immunotherapy bio-product—IBIO123. This has enabled the company to successfully complete a Phase One trial, with encouraging results. Currently, Immune Biosolutions is set to move the bio-product to Phase Two clinical trials to test its virus propagation blocking potential. Driving the bio-product development is the company’s qualified team of lab staff and product validation experts, who are striving to make IBIO123 a success.

Next in Immune Biosolutions’ pipeline is development of new therapies against leukemia, co-developed with pharma and biotech partners. A second-generation pan-coronavirus immunotherapeutic product is also in the works, slated to undergo validation by year-end.

The company looks forward to maintaining a balance between collaborative and independent immunotherapy development. As Alexandre Fugere, Assistant Director of Business Development at Immune Biosolutions, states, “While we mainly seek co-development with other pharmaceutical companies, we also want to share our antibody production capabilities with interested partners.” In essence, Immune Biosolutions will continue to find more avenues to leverage its innovative immunotherapeutic approach for efficient disease eradication in humans.