Fourth collaboration announced by AnaptysBio in 2010 using somatic hypermutation (SHM) therapeutic antibody platform

SAN DIEGOCA, USA | April 5, 2010 | AnaptysBio, Inc., a privately-held therapeutic antibody platform and product company, today announced a collaboration with VLST Corporation to generate novel multi-antigen specific antibody therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. This is the fourth collaboration announced by AnaptysBio during 2010.

Under the terms of the agreement, AnaptysBio will be responsible for generating novel antibodies using its proprietary somatic hypermutation (SHM) technology platform. Antibodies generated by AnaptysBio will be developed and commercialized by VLST, a Seattle-based biotechnology company focused on the development of therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. AnaptysBio has received an upfront payment to initiate the collaboration and is eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties associated with the development and sale of any products derived from the collaboration.

“A key objective of this collaboration is to leverage the ability of AnaptysBio’s SHM-Platform™ to select antibodies that bind specifically to multiple target antigens of interest,” said Tom Smart, chairman and chief executive officer of AnaptysBio. “Antibodies that bind specifically to multiple antigens are an area of increasing interest to the industry and one of the most exciting areas for novel therapeutic antibody development. We anticipate entering more collaborations because of growing interest in our platform’s ability to naturally evolve antibodies to meet challenging design goals and simultaneously select across multiple parameters for those with the desired properties, such as multi-antigen binding specificity.”

About AnaptysBio

Founded in 2005, AnaptysBio, Inc is a privately-held therapeutic antibody product company and the leader in the use of somatic hypermutation, or SHM, for antibody discovery and optimization. SHM is the body’s natural process for generating potent antibodies to fight disease. The Company’s SHM-Platform™ utilizes the key components of SHM and other state-of-the-art techniques such as mammalian cell expression/display and flow cytometry to generate antibodies for therapeutic applications through an iterative process of natural evolution and high-throughput selection – a process that has been referred to as “naturalizing” antibodies. This versatile platform can be used both to discover and optimize antibodies directed at specific disease targets and also affinity mature existing antibodies to improve their binding properties. The company has established broad intellectual property around the use of SHM for therapeutic antibody applications and is currently building a pipeline of novel therapeutic antibody product candidates. For more information, visit www.anaptysbio.com.

About VLST

VLST Corporation is a privately held biotechnology company dedicated to the streamlined discovery and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. The VLST approach combines novel bioinformatics and cutting-edge proteomics to provide a rapid and rational approach to identifying new targets for the development of novel biologic therapies. The VLST discovery platform has primary applications for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis and lupus. For more information, please visit www.vlstcorp.com.

SOURCE: VLST Corporation