Fusion Antibodies shares dive as no agreement with MAB yet

Antibody engineering services firm Fusion Antibodies saw its shares plummet on Wednesday as it gave advance notice of the termination of its collaboration agreement with MAB Discovery unless a new deal is struck.

The collaboration agreement, which began in June 2016, dictated that Fusion would undertake high-throughput humanisation of antibodies developed by MAB, utilising the firm’s CDRxTM platform.

As Fusion and MAB have not yet been able to agree a revised collaboration which would “provide greater clarity” concerning Fusion’s role, though talks continue, the pair had to agree to terminate the current agreement on Wednesday, as it requires six months advance notice of its 31 December end-date.

Fusion chief executive Paul Kerr remained optimistic that a deal can be done.

"Fusion has strengthened its expertise in humanisation of rabbit antibodies through its collaboration with MAB Discovery. Working together, we have greatly reduced development times for highly specific, CMC-ready antibodies. We believe that there is potential for future revenues from our collaboration to date."

Talks between MAB and Fusion continue, but Fusion said that “there can be no guarantee” that the two companies will enter a replacement agreement.

As of 1445 BST, Fusion Antibodies’ shares were down 17.96% at 137.00p.