Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Medarex, Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDX - news) and Athersys, Inc. announced today a collaboration to develop novel therapeutics produced through the joint application of Medarex's HuMAb-Mouse® technology and Athersys' RAGE technology. The two companies plan to jointly discover, develop and commercialize fully human antibodies as therapeutics. Athersys will apply its expertise in proteomics and expects to contribute 10 or more disease-related targets to the collaboration. These targets are expected to be in the fields of cancer and other life-threatening or debilitating diseases.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Medarex and Athersys have agreed to share preclinical and clinical responsibilities, and the two companies intend to jointly commercialize products resulting from the research program. Additionally, Athersys has acquired an option to obtain access to Medarex's HuMAb technology for targets that are outside the collaboration and Medarex has acquired an option to obtain access to validated therapeutic targets produced with Athersys' proprietary RAGE-VT(TM) technology and has also made an equity investment in Athersys.
``We are pleased to expand our 'Applied Genomics' product development program through this partnership with Athersys. The combination of Athersys' proteomics expertise with our human antibody technology is a logical match for the efficient development of new therapeutics,'' said Donald L. Drakeman, President and CEO of Medarex.
``The RAGE technology has powerful utility in the generation of therapeutic targets which is greatly complemented by the HuMAb-Mouse technology, as well as Medarex's other capabilities, including their fully validated manufacturing system,'' said Dr. Gil Van Bokkelen, President and CEO of Athersys. ``This strategic partnership combines Medarex's strengths with two distinct facets of the RAGE technology, its powerful utility in the area of functional genomics, and its use as an alternative system for production of cell lines expressing validated biological targets without requiring the physical cloning and isolation of specific genes.''
Medarex is a biopharmaceutical company developing monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics to fight cancer and other life-threatening and debilitating diseases. Medarex has assembled a broad platform of patented technologies for antibody discovery and development, including the HuMAb-Mouse and TC Mouse(TM) systems for the creation of high-affinity, fully human antibodies; T-12 Development(SM) offering the capability of moving from target to trial in approximately 12 months; and Trans-Phage Technology(SM) combining high throughput screening with fully human antibody development. Medarex creates and develops fully human antibodies for itself and others, offering a full range of antibody development capabilities, including pre-clinical and clinical manufacturing services. For more information about Medarex visit its web site at www.medarex.com .
Athersys is engaged in the development of therapeutic products for the treatment of significant and life threatening diseases. Athersys' research and development programs are focused on its two proprietary platform technologies: RAGE (Random Activation of Gene Expression)(TM) and the SMC (Synthetic Microchromosome)(TM) vector system. By applying the RAGE technology, Athersys can rapidly generate validated biological targets for drug development or related applications, conduct high throughput functional screening on a genome wide basis for novel genes and proteins, and commercially produce specific therapeutic proteins. This press release and further information on Athersys can be found at: www.Athersys.com . |
