Wednesday January 31, 7:00 am Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Lexicon Genetics Incorporated and Abgenix, Inc.
Lexicon Genetics Delivers Thirteen Novel Antigens to Abgenix for Antibody Development
Delivery Marks Progress in Drug Discovery Alliance
THE WOODLANDS, Texas and FREMONT, Calif., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Lexicon Genetics Incorporated (Nasdaq: LEXG - news) and Abgenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: ABGX - news) announced today that Lexicon has delivered to Abgenix, thirteen (13) human antigens for antibody development as part of the companies' drug discovery alliance. This marks the first of many antigens to be delivered to Abgenix for the discovery of antibody-based drugs.
A joint steering committee, consisting of scientists from both Lexicon and Abgenix, selected the thirteen (13) novel human antigens from Lexicon's proprietary portfolio of novel, full-length human genes. Lexicon is utilizing its proprietary knockout technology to determine the biological function of these genes to help determine the medical relevance of the drug targets they encode. Simultaneously, Abgenix is applying its XenoMouse(TM) technology to develop fully human antibodies directed at each of these drug targets. The union of these powerful technologies could result in the discovery and commercialization of multiple novel drugs for many diseases. It also has the potential to create a broad intellectual property package that covers antibody-based drugs, and broadly covers the use of the targeted receptors for developing therapeutic agents.
``This milestone demonstrates the value of our portfolio of novel human genes and the promise of our patented approach to drug target validation,'' said Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Lexicon. ``We believe Lexicon's success at identifying the best targets and Abgenix's ability to rapidly generate fully human monoclonal antibodies should provide both companies with numerous product opportunities as we move forward in this highly productive alliance.''
``We believe that the combination of Lexicon's drug target validation technology with Abgenix's XenoMouse antibody technology provides synergies that will accelerate the discovery and development of promising antibody drug candidates,'' said R. Scott Greer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Abgenix. ``The selection and delivery of these antigens is an important confirmation of the unique strengths of our alliance.''
In July 2000, Lexicon and Abgenix established this alliance to discover novel antibody drugs using targets derived from Lexicon's proprietary portfolio of full-length human genes. Under the alliance agreement, Lexicon and Abgenix will each have the right to obtain exclusive commercialization rights, including sublicensing rights, for an equal number of qualifying antibodies. Each company will receive milestone payments and royalties on sales of antibody drugs from the collaboration that are commercialized by the other party or a third party sublicensee.
Lexicon Genetics Incorporated is a leader in defining the functions of genes for drug discovery using large-scale knockout mouse technology. Complementary to its gene-specific custom knockout technology, Lexicon has invented high-throughput genome-wide gene trapping technology to discover thousands of genes and expand its OmniBank® library of tens of thousands of knockout mouse clones. The Company uses an integrated platform of functional genomics technologies to accelerate large-scale analysis of mammalian gene function for drug discovery. Lexicon's Internet exchange, www.lexgen.com, enables researchers worldwide to access the OmniBank library and form collaborations with Lexicon to discover pharmaceutical products based on genes and knowledge of their functions. Lexicon has established drug discovery alliances with Abgenix, Inc. and Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a LexVision(TM) collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and functional genomics and OmniBank collaborations with many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including American Home Products, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., N.V. Organon, Pharmacia Corp., The R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute of Johnson & Johnson and Tularik, Inc., as well as leading academic institutions worldwide. Additional Company information is available at www.lexicon-genetics.com.
Abgenix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of fully human monoclonal antibody therapies for a variety of diseases. The company's antibody technology platform, which includes XenoMouse(TM) technology, enables the rapid generation of high affinity, fully human antibody product candidates to essentially any disease target appropriate for antibody therapy. Abgenix leverages its leadership position in human antibody technology by building a large and diversified product portfolio through the establishment of licensing arrangements with multiple pharmaceutical, biotechnology and genomics companies and through the development of its own internal proprietary products. For more information on Abgenix, visit the company's website at www.abgenix.com. |
