Wednesday February 7, 12:53 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
Biovation Signs Agreement With Epicyte
SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 7, 2001--Biovation Limited of Aberdeen, U.K., a
member of the Merck KGaA group and Epicyte Pharmaceutical Inc. of San Diego, today
announced the signing of a Research Agreement under which Biovation will apply its
proprietary Biodisplay(TM) and DeImmunisation(TM) technologies to generate and optimize antibodies for commercial
development using Epicyte's Plantibody(TM) technology.
In return, Biovation will earn research revenues, milestones and royalties on product sales.
According to Frank Carr, Biovation's president and chief executive officer, ``We are delighted to be working with Epicyte,
who are establishing a very exciting and innovative pipeline of antibody products for preventing and treating disease. Epicyte's
proprietary high yield, low cost antibody production system opens up exciting new possibilities for antibody-based products
and we are happy to be a part of this.''
Biodisplay(TM) technology was developed for the isolation of human antibodies to specific targets. Biodisplay(TM) makes use
of a large synthetic human antibody library to directly identify antibodies that bind to target antigens. The technology uses mass
spectrometry analysis to identify antigen bound by antibodies thus eliminating the requirement for antigen labelling or extensive
antigen preparation.
DeImmunisation(TM) technology is designed to genetically engineer antibodies and other proteins for administration to humans
without side effects caused by rejection by the human immune system. DeImmunisation(TM) involves the identification and
elimination of T cell epitopes in antibodies and other proteins, which can drive patient immune responses against these
molecules. As such, the technology constitutes a more rational approach to development of therapeutic antibodies than previous
humanization technologies and also provides, for the first time, a means to engineer microbial proteins for human use.
Epicyte's Plantibody(TM) technology enables the economical production of unlimited quantities of pharmaceutical-grade
monoclonal antibodies in crop plants. Antibodies are the largest product segment in biotechnology, yet existing antibody
manufacturing systems have limited capacity and high scale-up costs.
``Biovation's technologies will allow Epicyte to dramatically expand our antibody pipeline,'' said Chris Clement, Epicyte's CEO.
``The collaboration will allow us to take existing murine monoclonal antibodies and make them human-safe, as well as to
generate novel human antibodies against our targets.''
Once a monoclonal antibody is immortalized in a plant seed line using the Plantibody(TM) technology, it can be scaled to
annual production of metric tons within three years. ``Each of the monoclonals we develop with Biovation will be enabled for
low cost and large scale production to meet a diversity of market needs,'' Clement stated, ``This provides Epicyte, Biovation
and our partners with a distinct advantage over current antibody pipelines that are constrained by, capacity, cost and scalability
for commercial markets.''
Epicyte is developing a range of antibody-based products with an initial focus on the prevention and treatment of infections. The
company currently has five antibody products in development. Epicyte has extensive intellectual property for production of
antibodies in plants licensed from The Scripps Research Institute and has a strategic alliance with Dow AgroSciences/Dow
Chemical for product development and manufacturing of its Plantibody(TM) products. It plans to license or partner its
technology in areas outside its product focus. Additional information about Epicyte is available at www.epicyte.com.
Biovation is a protein engineering company which was acquired by the Merck Group in October 2000. Biovation has
successfully partnered its DeImmunisation technology with companies in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan and
Australia. Additional information about Biovation is available at www.biovation.co.uk.
Headquartered in Darmstadt/Germany, the Merck Group generates annual sales of more than EUR 5 billion in the fields of
Pharmaceuticals, Specialty Chemicals, Lab Products and Lab Distribution. Founded in 1668, the Merck Group is represented
today by almost 200 operating companies in 48 countries and employs 33,000 people world-wide. The company groups its
operating activities under Merck KGaA, in which E. Merck, as a general partner, holds the Merck family's 74 percent equity
interest in Merck KGaA. The Merck Group strongly believes that promotion of its employees' self-initiative and
self-responsibility, application-oriented research and development and close customer relationships in the markets are the keys
to long-term corporate success.
Contact:
Epicyte Media Contact
Mentus Inc., San Diego
Kathy Witz Sweeney, 858/455-5500
kwitz@mentusonline.com
or
Biovation Limited, Aberdeen
Fiona Adair, +44 (0) 1224 707337 |
