Oxford
BioMedica PLC and Arius Research Inc. sign Collaborative Programme
in Tumour Immunotherapy
Oxford
BioMedica plc (LSE:OXB) (“BioMedica”) and ARIUS
Research Inc. (“ARIUS”) of Canada announced today
a research and development collaboration to search for targets
and develop novel products to treat cancer.
Under
the collaboration ARIUS will supply BioMedica with a range
of 50 functional anti-tumour antibodies that it has identified
using a unique novel approach. BioMedica will characterise
the antibodies and identify the cognate antigens by employing
a range of proprietary technologies from its gene discovery
and immunotherapy programmes. The antigens and antibodies
will be developed for use in immunotherapeutic approaches
to the treatment of cancer. New products, such as vaccines
or therapeutic antibodies, will be developed by the two companies
or in conjunction with pharmaceutical partners.
The appetite
within the pharmaceutical industry for cancer therapies that
make use of tumour specific antibodies or vaccines is increasing
substantially. It has been estimated that the therapeutic
antibody market alone will have grown to $4 billion by the
end of 2002 and is set to rise steadily over the next 10 years.
BioMedica is already a significant player in this field with
its $24 million antibody deal with Wyeth and its very successful
clinical trial results with the Company’s proprietary
therapeutic vaccine TroVax®. BioMedica has
both the technical skills to develop these products and the
business development experience to market them to larger pharmaceutical
companies. If successful, TroVax could reach the market in
4-5 years with sales exceeding $1 billion. Similarly, the
Wyeth collaboration could yield a product of similar significance
within a comparable time frame. The new collaboration between
BioMedica and ARIUS is designed to provide a pipeline of cancer
immunotherapy products that will be marketed jointly to the
industry once proof of principle is established. The first
output from the collaboration is expected within a year.
Commenting
on the collaboration, BioMedica’s chief executive, Professor
Alan Kingsman said: "This
is a excellent opportunity for Oxford BioMedica. The collaboration
with ARIUS offers the unique ability to generate novel cancer
immunotherapy products by utilising our in-house immunology
and gene discovery platforms alongside ARIUS' novel technology
for discovering functional antibodies."
Commenting
on the collaboration ARIUS' chief executive, David Young said:
"ARIUS
is delighted at the prospect of a collaborative development
with Oxford BioMedica as one that will add value to our core
expertise in functional antibody generation by characterising
the target antigens."
Background.
It is now well established that tumours display unique proteins
or over-express normal proteins on their surface that can
act as antigens or targets for the immune system. They are
called Tumour Associated Antigens (TAA’s). Normally
the immune system fails to react to these proteins and an
immune response is not normally observed in cancer. However,
it is possible using immunotherapy to target these antigens
either using therapeutic antibodies or vaccines and generate
a therapeutic anti-cancer response. ARIUS has produced functional
antibodies against tumour tissues that are the subject of
this collaboration. Oxford BioMedica has expertise in the
identification of TAA’s and the development of antibody
and vaccine therapies for the treatment of cancer.
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