RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK — KBI Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical cAbSci, the Protein Printing™ company with a best-in-class E. coli cell line for rapid and low-cost biomanufacturing of complex biotherapeutics, today announced the completion of a $10.4M Series D financing led by KBI Biopharma and JSR Life Sciencesract services organization with offices in Durham and RTP, has entered into an exclusive co-marketing agreement with the Washington-based biopharma tech company, AbSci.

The uptick: both get the privilege to jointly market and promote each other’s technologies, products, and services.

Under the agreement, KBI Biopharma has the exclusive right to market AbSci’s Protein Printing™ technology worldwide. It will also be AbSci’s preferred contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for industrial scale-up of biologics developed using AbSci technology.

It will give partners “a seamless path from cell line development to process optimization/scale up and cGMP manufacturing.”

“We are thrilled to partner with KBI Biopharma, a premier CDMO and technology leader. This partnership allows us to better serve our partners by giving them rapid and direct line of sight to GMP manufacturing,” said Sean McClain, Founder and CEO of AbSci, in a statement.

“AbSci has developed a reputation for solving complex manufacturing hurdles that have stymied next-generation biotherapeutics. These molecules have proven to be extremely difficult or impossible to produce in other protein expression platforms. AbSci’s Protein Printing™ technology is uniquely suited to solve this manufacturing issue and enables pharma and biotech companies to get these truly groundbreaking therapies to the market and improve patient outcomes.”

KBI, along with JSR Life Sciences, also led a $10.4M Series D financing round into AbSci.

Added Tim Kelly, KBI Biopharma’s CEO: “We believe that AbSci’s microbial expression technology is truly disruptive, and we are excited to deliver unique solutions to the biopharmaceutical industry via our partnership. The next generation of biologics will be enabled only though innovation and product development expertise. Our world class team and FDA and EMA-approved clinical and commercial microbial manufacturing facilities in Boulder, CO are ideally suited to translate AbSci’s technology into new medicines for patients in need.”

KBI Biopharma taking office and lab space in RTP Venture at Imperial Center