Strategic agreement will accelerate the manufacturing of fully human multispecific therapies for chronic retinal diseases with high unmet need using Asimov’s CHO Edge System
Boston, Massachusetts, and San Carlos, California, November 19, 2024 – Asimov, the synthetic biology company advancing the design and manufacture of therapeutics, today announced a licensing agreement for its CHO Edge System with RevOpsis Therapeutics (“RevOpsis”), a next-generation biopharmaceutical company spearheading innovation of multispecific biologics in ophthalmic therapies. This agreement follows a successful cell line development campaign with Asimov’s CHO Edge System for the lead RevOpsis asset, RO-104.
Under the terms of the agreement, RevOpsis will integrate the CHO Edge System in the development and commercialization of its first-in-class fully modular tri-specific biologic, RO-104, for the treatment of retinal vascular diseases. RO-104 is designed to address all three clinically validated dominant angiogenic pathways (VEGF-A, VEGF-C, Ang-2) implicated in retinal vascular disease progression, including neovascular AMD and diabetic macular edema. RevOpsis has made significant progress with clinical progression of RO-104 supporting the initiation of IND-enabling studies beginning in January 2025
The CHO Edge System incorporates a GMP-banked CHO-K1 glutamine synthetase (GS) knockout host – or alternatively a GS-Fut8 double knockout for producing afucosylated antibodies – along with a hyperactive transposase, a library of over one thousand characterized genetic parts for vector design, and advanced AI and biophysics models. The system reliably generates stable cell lines with high titer and exceptional product quality, enabling optimization of the expression vector and bioreactor processes across various biologics modalities.
Alec Nielsen, Asimov co-founder and CEO, said: “Asimov’s CHO Edge System continues to gain rapid adoption since its launch last year. We are delighted that RevOpsis is joining the growing set of partners that are putting their trust in our platform. CHO Edge will form the cornerstone of their bioproduction process for an impactful therapeutic that will serve unmet needs in a growing patient population. We look forward to supporting their biologic development as they progress through clinical trials.”
Ramanath Bhandari, RevOpsis co-founder and CEO, commented: “RevOpsis is committed to the rapid discovery and development of novel multispecific therapies utilizing our modular RevMod™ Platform that consists of fully-human libraries. Asimov’s CHO Edge System has exhibited great performance and will underpin the development and commercialization of our lead clinical asset RO-104 for the treatment of retinal vascular disease progression, including neovascular age-related macular degeneration.”
To learn more about the CHO Edge System, please visit Asimov’s webpage at https://www.asimov.com/cho
