UCB

Biopharmaceutical company. Represented by Alistair Henry at Session I.

Key Programs Discussed

• Bimekizumab (Bimzelx) — the headliner; dual F specificity designed at the atom level
• Romosozumab (Evenity) — born from ultra-rare genetics (sclerostin/SOST)
• Rozanolixizumab (Rystiggo) — FcRn inhibition

Approach

• Human pathobiology first — organoids, tissue explants, patient-derived material are routine
• Atom-level antibody design predating AI: >28,000 variants → 1 drug
• Back-translation as a systematic tool — the transcriptome of a treated patient is a free hypothesis generator
• Bimekizumab’s workflow seeded UCB’s modern antibody discovery: robotics, NGS-based repertoire mining, layered property optimization