AbGenomics Holding Inc., a clinical-stage biotech company, now operates as AltruBio Inc. The change took effect immediately when it was announced on June 15, 2020. Even so, headquarters stay in Redwood City, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company’s Taiwanese subsidiary is being renamed as well and will operate as AltruBio Taiwan, Inc.
According to the company, the new name marks a shift in focus that follows changes to its management, its board and its strategy. Over the past year, Chairman Dr. Patrick Y. Yang, a longtime industry figure, brought in a new group of directors with deep and wide experience in biopharmaceuticals. In December the company hired Dr. Judy Chou as President and Chief Executive Officer. Since she started in January, Dr. Chou has reshaped the business around its autoimmune disease pipeline. She has also targeted steroid-refractory acute graft versus host disease (SR-aGVHD), where she sees a chance to deliver value to patients and stakeholders quickly.
Dr. Chou said she was pleased to unveil the new brand, which she described as a fresh start for the company and a statement of its values. The name, she explained, reflects the belief that its drugs should help patients in an altruistic way, working well without giving up safety. Then there is a second meaning, she added: being all true to patients, investors, partners and employees.
AltruBio is privately held, while its research centers on new antibody therapies for immunological diseases where medical needs remain largely unmet. Its work draws on insights into immune tolerance and epitope dominance, and its pipeline has two candidates in clinical trials.
- Neihulizumab (AbGn-168H) is an immune checkpoint agonist antibody that targets PSGL-1/CD162 and depletes unwanted activated T cells. It has shown proof of mechanism in four autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
- AbGn-107 is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that targets a gastrointestinal tumor antigen and uses an unusual enzyme-cleavable, hydrophilic, self-immolative linker. So far it has produced encouraging results in chemo-refractory gastric, pancreatic, colorectal and biliary cancers.
