The Silent Engine: Adimab’s Record Year Powers Biotech’s Next Wave

LEBANON, NH – January 12, 2026 – While the biotech industry often celebrates the companies that bring new drugs to market, the foundational technology platforms that make those breakthroughs possible can remain behind the curtain. Adimab, a global leader in antibody discovery, just pulled that curtain back, announcing a landmark 2025 that solidifies its position as a critical, if quiet, engine of biopharmaceutical innovation.

The New Hampshire-based company reported it forged 23 new partnership agreements and launched 75 new therapeutic programs last year. These figures, coupled with 50 technical and development milestones achieved, are more than just impressive metrics for a private firm; they are a barometer for the health and direction of the entire drug discovery ecosystem, signaling a profound reliance on specialized, external expertise to create the next generation of medicines.

Since 2009, Adimab has partnered with over 140 companies, generating a staggering portfolio of over 650 royalty-bearing programs. This success stems from a unique, partner-focused business model: Adimab does not develop its own drugs. Instead, it provides its powerful, proprietary yeast-based platform to others, from pharmaceutical giants to nimble startups, acting as a specialized R&D powerhouse that accelerates their pipelines.

The Partnership Paradigm

Adimab’s 2025 partner list reads like a who’s who of the biopharma world, underscoring the trust its platform has earned. The company deepened its relationships with 12 existing partners, including industry titans like Lilly, Regeneron, and Alnylam. For companies like Lilly, the relationship is deeply integrated, with Adimab's technology having been transferred and implemented directly within the pharma giant's labs. This continued expansion with sophisticated, long-term partners is a powerful vote of confidence in the platform's ability to consistently deliver high-quality therapeutic candidates.

Simultaneously, Adimab attracted a new cohort of diverse and innovative companies, including Roivant Sciences, known for its agile drug development model, and Variant Bio, which discovers therapies by studying the genetics of outlier populations. This demonstrates the platform’s appeal across the entire spectrum of drug development, from established players looking to augment their internal capabilities to cutting-edge biotechs pursuing novel biological pathways.

"Sophisticated partners seek us out because our technology and expertise can help create best-in-class molecules," noted Philip T. Chase, Adimab’s Chief Executive Officer, in the company's announcement. This sentiment reflects a broader industry trend toward collaborative R&D. Rather than building every complex capability in-house, companies are increasingly turning to specialists like Adimab. This allows them to de-risk early-stage development, access state-of-the-art technology, and rapidly advance programs that might otherwise languish, embodying the classic 'picks and shovels' strategy in the biotech gold rush.

Beyond Monoclonals: A Technological Arms Race

The sheer volume of partnerships is driven by the technical depth Adimab offers, particularly in areas that represent the future of antibody therapeutics. The company has moved far beyond standard monoclonal antibodies, building a formidable toolkit to solve some of drug development’s most intractable problems.

"We continue to distinguish ourselves by providing solutions for our partners that others cannot," said Guy Van Meter, Chief Business Officer. He highlighted the company's prowess in multispecifics—complex antibodies engineered to hit two or more targets simultaneously. Adimab offers proprietary solutions that enable the creation of these molecules with excellent 'developability,' a critical property that ensures a potential drug can be manufactured reliably and is stable in the body.

This expertise extends to T cell engagers, a powerful class of cancer therapy. Adimab has developed and licensed a suite of well-characterized CD3 and CD28 antibodies, which act as the 'hooks' to bring a patient's own T cells to the site of a tumor. With over 25 partners using this technology, Adimab is a key enabler of this revolutionary approach to oncology.

Perhaps most significantly, Adimab has developed workflows to tackle notoriously 'difficult' targets like G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels. These membrane-bound proteins are implicated in a vast range of diseases but have historically been challenging for antibody discovery. By developing methods that work with these proteins in their natural state, Adimab opens up a wide new field of druggable targets. The company also pointed to its work in blood-brain barrier transport, a holy grail for treating neurological disorders, as another key area of differentiation, positioning it at the forefront of tackling diseases of the central nervous system.

A Blueprint for Sustainable Biotech Growth

In an industry notorious for high cash burn rates, Adimab stands out as a model of sustainability. The company has reportedly been profitable for over a decade, a direct result of its partner-funded business model. Revenue comes from a diversified stream of research fees, licensing fees, and milestone payments triggered by partner progress, insulating it from the binary risk of clinical trial success or failure that defines product-focused biotechs.

Each of the 75 new programs initiated in 2025 is royalty-bearing, adding to a massive portfolio of over 650 programs that represent long-term, passive revenue potential for Adimab as they advance through clinical trials and toward commercial approval. With 89 partnered programs already in the clinic and 6 approved products on the market, this model is bearing significant fruit.

Recognizing the immense value locked in these future royalties, Adimab recently established Adimab Royalty Company (ARC) to house royalty rights on its more advanced assets. This strategic move not only highlights the maturity of its portfolio but also creates a vehicle for investors to gain exposure to a diversified slice of the biotech industry's future successes, all powered by a single underlying technology platform.

This financial stability allows Adimab to follow through on its CEO's pledge of "ongoing reinvestment in expanding our capabilities." The company is actively integrating machine learning and in silico methods into its platform, embracing what some call the "third wave" of antibody discovery to further enhance the speed and precision of its work. By building a robust, profitable, and technologically advanced platform, Adimab has not only secured its own future but has also created a more efficient and accelerated pathway for its partners to bring life-changing therapies to patients.