Arius
Reserach Inc and Oxford BioMedica Plc
Collaboration
Attracts First Development Partner in Protein Design Labs
Inc.
Oxford
BioMedica plc (LSE:OXB) (“BioMedica”) announced
today that the research and development collaboration with
ARIUS Research Inc (YAR) (Canada), which began on 25 July
2002 to search for targets and develop novel products to treat
cancer, has attracted a development partner, Protein Design
Labs, Inc (PDL) for two of the antibodies. PDL, located in
Freemont, California, is a leading player in the development
of humanized monoclonal antibodies for the prevention and
treatment of disease.
Under
the ARIUS collaboration BioMedica will identify the cognate
antigens for H460-16-2 and ARH460-22-1, two of the fifty ARIUS
antibodies that are the subject of the BioMedica/ARIUS collaboration.
PDL has the option to humanize, develop and market the two
antibodies. ARIUS would receive, should PDL exercise its option
to license the antibodies, licensing fees and milestone payments,
contingent upon future development outcomes. BioMedica would
be entitled to a percentage royalty on any income from the
PDL deal. The collaboration between BioMedica and ARIUS is
designed to provide a pipeline of cancer immunotherapy products
that will be marketed jointly to the industry. This new agreement
with PDL is the first to arise form these efforts. ARIUS initially
presented favourable pre-clinical results for ARH460-22-1
and ARH460-16-2 in July 2002 at a meeting of the International
Union against Cancer in Oslo, Norway.
This agreement
represents significant external validation of ARIUS’
technology for developing anti-cancer antibodies and highlights
the immediate value of the collaborative programme between
BioMedica and ARIUS.
Commenting
on the collaboration, BioMedica’s chief executive, Prof.
Alan Kingsman said: "The PDL agreement comes less
than three months after ARIUS announced a separate joint venture
agreement with BioMedica. This deal confirms the value of
our collaboration with ARIUS and we hope that more deals are
to follow in the future."
Commenting
on the collaboration ARIUS's chief executive, David Young
said:
“These agreements illustrate the opportunities and
value in our library and approach to partnering. Partnering
with BioMedica gives both companies new opportunities through
rapid target identification and PDL will help realise the
potential from the antibody and its target through their strength
in drug development.”
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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