OXFORD, England, PRINCETON, N.J. and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Jan. 9/PRNewswire/ -- Oxford GlycoSciences Plc (LSE: OGS; Nasdaq: OGSI),
Medarex (Nasdaq: MEDX - news) and Genmab A/S (CSE: GEN and Neuer Markt: GE9D) today
announced a new comprehensive and targeted approach intended to create an
array of novel medical products for breast cancer. This initiative builds on
the alliance announced in September 2000 and brings together breast cancer
targets that have been discovered through OGS' proteomics platform with
Medarex and Genmab's combined strengths in creating and developing
immunological products. The first product in the program, a fully human
therapeutic antibody, is expected to enter clinical trials in about one year.
It targets heparanase I, an enzyme involved in the growth and spread of many
cancers, including breast cancer.
This new, comprehensive development effort is designed to lead to a broad panel of complementary breast cancer treatments, including new antibody and vaccine therapies, and biomarkers that will target the vast majority of breast cancer patients with a multi-pronged therapeutic approach.
By employing its industrialized proteomics platform to examine cancer tissue samples, OGS has identified a large number of proteins that are specific for breast cancer. From this group, the collaboration has selected for further development an initial set of seven disease targets which, in the aggregate, appear to be expressed on the tumors of over 85% of women with breast cancer. Medarex's UltiMAb Human Antibody Development System(SM) is being employed with the goal of creating human antibody therapeutics and/or tumor vaccines based on these disease targets.
This comprehensive development program is designed not only to address the current medical need of breast cancer, which affects 1.9 million women worldwide, but also to generate opportunities for well-tolerated therapeutic intervention at multiple stages of a patient's disease. Accordingly, the array of therapies being developed under this program are expected to include: 1) antibody-based products designed to destroy tumors, 2) the anti-heparanase I antibody to prevent tumor growth and 3) a vaccine approach to prevent recurrences.
The first product emerging from the program is a fully human antibody that binds to and neutralizes the heparanase I enzyme. Preclinical testing suggests that this antibody has the potential to prevent tumor growth and to reduce metastasis to limit the spread of tumors. This antibody to heparanase I, one of a family of heparanase molecules, has the potential to be used in the treatment of many tumors, including breast cancer.
``Cancer antibody products currently on the market have demonstrated that medicines and diagnostics in the new era of genomics and proteomics can target specific, identifiable patient populations, which enhance their likelihood of success,'' said Michael Kranda, Chief Executive Officer of OGS. ``Through the OGS proteomics platform, our collaboration with Medarex and Genmab is expected to develop a number of specific diagnostics and therapeutics for a comprehensive campaign against breast cancer.''
``We are pleased to announce how our collaboration with OGS over the last year has led to numerous novel product opportunities that are expected to leverage both our human antibody technology and our tumor vaccine programs,'' said Donald L. Drakeman, President and CEO of Medarex. ``We will work hard to take advantage of our development capabilities and GMP manufacturing expertise to move these products rapidly into clinical trials.''
``We believe that this collaboration, which combines OGS, the leading proteomics company, with Genmab and Medarex's strengths in immunological product development, has created the broadest and most comprehensive approach to the development of new breast cancer treatments that exists in the industry today,'' said Lisa Drakeman, President and CEO of Genmab. ``We look forward to working with OGS and Medarex to extend this powerful combination of technologies to other life-threatening diseases.''
As stated in the September 2000 announcement regarding the collaboration, Medarex and OGS expect to share preclinical and clinical responsibilities to jointly commercialize products resulting from the research program. Medarex subsequently exercised its right to transfer a proportion of its rights in the collaboration in certain territories to Genmab, and the three parties are coordinating efforts to move the programs forward. Recently OGS and Medarex agreed to change the heparanase I program from a fee for service program to a joint program under this collaboration on terms which were not disclosed... |
