Bulletin: Despite domestic snubbing, AbCellera made nearly $200 million off of its COVID-19 treatment

Vancouver’s AbCellera closed out a monster year in which it became Canada’s most valuable biotech company by growing year-over-year revenue 1,908% to $233 million USD.

The company announced Tuesday (March 29) that it generated a net profit of $119 million USD, up from a net loss of $2 million on $11.6 million in revenue in 2019.

“AbCellera had a breakthrough year, demonstrating strong growth across every area of the business and the effectiveness of our technology and business model through our discovery of the first monoclonal antibody therapy for COVID-19,” said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., President and CEO of AbCellera, in a statement. “Each program improves our platform, and we continue to invest in new technologies that enhance and expand our capabilities to discover high-quality, potent antibodies for our partners. With our strong cash position, profitability, and cash generation, we are aggressively executing on building our centralized operating system to help bring new antibody therapies to patients faster and more efficiently.”

The majority of royalty revenue came from bamlanivimab, the company’s COVID-19-fighting antibody co-developed with Eli Lilly & Co., which has Health Canada authorization (and the federal government as a customer), but no traction among the provinces as a standard of care.

Recently, the company’s plans for a massive biotech campus were made public, as it goes on a hiring spree to double its workforce.

Past AbCellera mentions:

• 23 Vancouver tech and business power players to know

• AbCellera founder Carl Hansen calls for lower taxes on innovation.

• AbCellera, which recently rais $555.5M in the largest Canadian biotech IPO ever, is looking to build a massive purpose-built office and medical laboratory campus in Mount Pleasant.

• AbCellera is looking to build a massive purpose-built office and medical laboratory campus in Mount Pleasant.