Originally established to study influenza, a partnership between NIAID and biotechnology company AbCellera quickly pivoted to become a major player in the development of antibodybased COVID-19 therapies. One of those therapies, bamlanivimab, has been authorized to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms in patients who are at risk for more severe disease, when combined with another antibody.

The NIAID Technology Transfer & Intellectual Property Office (TTIPO) negotiated a Research Collaboration Agreement (RCA) when NIAID and AbCellera first joined forces in 2018, aiming at identifying and characterizing antibodies against the influenza virus. The relationship evolved to encompass methods for studying coronavirus antibodies, as well as developing coronavirus monoclonal antibodies that could be used for prevention or treatment. This partnership, along with the coronavirus research it supported, paid huge dividends when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged just a few years later.

NIAID scientists engineered the spike protein based on their previous work with other types of coronaviruses. This step was crucial, because live SARS-CoV-2 or isolated “natural” SARS-CoV-2 spike protein cannot be used effectively to identify and isolate neutralizing antibodies. AbCellera then used its proprietary high-throughput, machine-based process — developed as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Pandemic Prevention Platform — to find the most potent antibodies among millions of antibody-producing cells from a patient who had recovered from COVID-19 infection.

TTIPO negotiated an exclusive license with AbCellera for the intellectual property covering these antibodies to expedite development of antibodies for treatment and prevention. AbCellera further partnered with Eli Lilly, which had the capacity and resources to develop a therapeutic antibody to SARS-CoV-2.