Eurobio Scientific and the Hospices Civils de Lyon join forces to develop a bank of anti-SARS CoV-2 antibodies

Eurobio Scientific and the Hospices Civils de Lyon join forces
to develop a bank of anti-SARS CoV-2 antibodies

• Creation of a bank of human monoclonal antibodies for research, diagnostic and therapeutic purposes
• Use of proprietary HuBBB technology from Eurobio Scientific
• Supply of donor samples by the Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL)

Paris, May 13, 2020 – 5 :45 pm

Eurobio Scientific (FR0013240934, ALERS, eligible PEA-PME), a leading French group in the field of specialty in vitro medical diagnostics, announces today that it has partnered with HCL to conduct an observational clinical study with the primary objective of creating a reference bank of antibodies anti-SARS CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19 disease. This study started on April 29 and is scheduled for completion in July 2020.

Reference antibodies: a critical requirement

The antibodies generated during an infection by a virus can be of several types: those which neutralize the virus and are therefore of therapeutic interest, and those which amplify the symptoms of the disease, in particular by facilitating the penetration of the virus into the cells.

The development of vaccines against the virus therefore requires the availability of a reference antibody bank in order to better identify the antibodies induced and avoid potentially harmful types. This bank also makes it possible to carry out more precise diagnostic tests which should make it possible to predict the course of the disease according to the populations of antibodies detected.

Implementation of proprietary technology

The clinical study¹ plans to recruit convalescent patients who did contract the virus, without hospitalization or with admission in emergency to the infectious diseases department of the Croix-Rousse Hospital in Lyon. Three objectives have been defined: generate the reference antibody bank, compare the antibodies of pauci-symptomatic patients and emergency patients, compare the effectiveness for neutralizing the virus of the patients' natural antibodies and the reference antibodies generated.

As part of this study, Eurobio Scientific will use its proprietary HuBBB technology to immortalize cells of the human immune system (B cells) to make them produce antibodies of interest.

The antibody bank thus created will reinforce the catalog of antibodies, marketed by Eurobio Scientific within its division for Life Sciences Research, or licensed to vaccine manufacturers, and allow it to have proprietary antibodies for future diagnostic tests.