San Francisco-based Twist Bioscience, a synthetic biology and genomics company, has announced its acquisition of Abveris (formally known as AbX Biologics) in a deal that will add in an vivo antibody discovery platform to Twist's synthetic DNA arsenal.
Abveris, a privately held company based in Massachusetts, offers comprehensive antibody discovery and characterization services using its proprietary DiversimAb™ family of hyperimmune mouse models. The deal, that could be worth up to $190 million, will enable Twist to humanize the output of these mouse models using the Twist antibody optimization solution — with the end goal of developing superior biologics for rapid clinical advancement.
The acquisition comes a week after Twist spun-out a new biotech, Revelar Biotherapeutics, that will first focus on developing and commercializing an antibody that has neutralized all known variants of concern of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in preclinical studies.