REYKJAVIK, Iceland and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- deCODE genetics (Nasdaq: DCGN; Nasdaq Europe) and Genmab A/S (CSE: GEN and Neuer Markt: GE9D) today announced the formation of a broad-based collaboration to develop new antibody therapeutic products. The partnership will utilize novel targets discovered in deCODE's research on the genetics of common diseases along with Genmab's fully human antibody technology to create and develop new products.
This is a multi-target alliance that will cover a broad range of disease areas including cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases as well as cancer. The collaboration brings together deCODE's unique population genomics resources and genetically-validated target discovery program with Genmab's broad antibody development capabilities and extensive array of pre-clinical tools to generate and characterize fully human antibodies. Genmab and deCODE will collaborate on the research, development, and commercialization of the new antibody products, and will share equally development costs and revenues generated from outlicensing or sales of these products. The diseases covered by the alliance include many of the most common and devastating afflictions in the U.S., Europe and around the world. Also as part of its strategy of turning research results into new products, deCODE is working with Roche to develop novel small molecule therapeutics in a dozen diseases.
Given the scope of this multi-target alliance, Medarex, Inc., a leading antibody company based in the United States, will also contribute resources to the collaboration and will share certain costs and commercial rights. Medarex originally developed the UltiMAb(TM) platform, which Genmab has licensed, and also has an agreement in which it may participate with Genmab in multi-target European genomics relationships, such as this one.
``Our alliance with Genmab forms part of our strategy to maximize return on our genomics discoveries by converting them into products on the market,'' commented Dr. Kari Stefansson, CEO of deCODE. ``The low toxicity and excellent safety profile of fully human antibodies means that they can be brought into the clinic more cheaply and swiftly than traditional drugs, and Genmab offers proven scientific and management leadership in this very promising new field.''
``deCODE is an excellent partner, with their unique approach to genomics and their high quality organization,'' said Lisa N. Drakeman, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer. ``We are extremely pleased to be working with them. This is the fourth new collaboration that we have announced since our IPO, and speaks very well of Genmab and all the assets we can offer to partners.''... |
