OptiMAL collaboration agreement

Fusion Antibodies plc (AIM: FAB), specialists in pre-clinical antibody discovery, engineering and supply for both therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications, announces that it has signed a collaboration agreement (the "Agreement") with the National Cancer Institute ("NCI") for the use of OptiMAL® in the discovery of novel antibodies against targets selected by NCI.

Under the terms of the Agreement, Fusion will provide access to the OptiMAL® technology to NCI for deployment against an agreed number of targets, being primarily cancer targets, over a period of up to two years, in order to develop potential therapeutic antibodies against the selected targets. The parties will work together to ensure successful validation of the OptiMAL® technology and jointly publish any results from the collaboration. The validation will be run at NCI's laboratories by their staff and antibodies identified pursuant to the Agreement would be retained by NCI.

NCI, part of the US National Institutes of Health, is the US federal government's principal agency for cancer research and training.

Adrian Kinkaid, CEO of Fusion, commented: "At the time of our fundraise in May, we said that we would be seeking the support of third parties to continue to progress the delivery of OptiMAL®. We are delighted to have been able to secure a partner with the expertise of NCI to provide validation to the technology without Fusion being required to commit significant resource to the project."

Mitchell Ho, Ph.D., Deputy Chief, Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Director of the Antibody Engineering Program, Center for Cancer Research, NCI commented: "NCI will test the OptiMAL® platform for the discovery of novel antibodies to cancer targets and also SARS-CoV-2. We have a particular interest in Mammalian Cell Display as a discovery engine and look forward to using this in NCI."

Richard Buick, CSO of Fusion, commented: "The expertise and experience of Dr. Ho and his colleagues make NCI an ideal partner for validation of the Optimal® library and mammalian cell display technology. I look forward to the collaboration and working closely with the National Cancer Institute."

James Reeve/Vivek Bhardwaj (Corporate Finance) Tony Quirke (Sales and Corporate Broking)