ImaginAb, an Inglewood, Calif.-based clinical-stage company developing in vivomolecular imaging agents, has entered into a collaboration and commercialization agreement with Lundbeck, an international pharmaceutical company, on a novel central nervous system (CNS) target in order to explore the use of re-engineered antibodies to accelerate the blood-brain barrier (BBB) transport of biologics.

"This collaboration represents a great opportunity for both companies to explore an increasingly important intersection between therapeutic and diagnostic medicine," said Christian Behrenbruch, CEO of ImaginAb. "Given the worrying number of recent failures of late-stage biologics programs, including for neurodegenerative applications, there is a critical need to explore new ways of integrating diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to de-risk development."

The parties will collaborate to concurrently develop biologics with improved BBB transport and imaging agents that are capable of quantitating kinetics and targeting efficacy. The agreement also includes an option for Lundbeck to commercialize the results of the collaboration for both diagnostic and therapeutic uses.

"Molecular imaging has become a prevalent aspect of developing new CNS products, both during product development and for clinical management of disease, and we are pleased to be working with ImaginAb to explore this exciting opportunity," said Jeffrey Stavenhagen, head of biologics, Lundbeck.