V1:
The significance will probably be resolved by attorneys. I hope that the only attorneys involved will be those from Biogen and Idec, but that is not completely clear to me at this time. I also hope that all relevant attorneys are on the same page and that they are discussing cross-license or merger rather than litigation.
An old friend and collaborator of mine, Ed Clark from University of Washington, made the first B7-specific monoclonal. He has beaten the drums for the importance of lymphocyte modulating signals delivered via MAbs since 1986. It's therefore been a subject near and dear to my heart, and I consider it likely that delivery of negative signals to lymphocytes will be one of the five biggest opportunities in pharmaceuticals over the next decade.
Two companies had the foresight to invest early in this area: Bristol-Myers Squibb and Schering-Plough. American Home Products bought into the field big-time with the purchase of Genetics Institute and a majority interest in Immunex. Pfizer is also poking their nose around in this area, collaborating with tiny Repligen on an immunostimulation and combinatorial chemistry program. Roche was one of the first to (sort of) test the concept in clinicals, collaborating with Protein Design Labs with anti-Tac. As I read it, Roche is sort of left out in the cold, having pioneered with the wrong target. However, Roche owns a majority interest in Genentech, Idec's anti-CD20 partner, and Idec recently licensed humanization technology from PDLI for a given molecule. So, Roche must also be crawling all over this subject.
As I look at the references in the PNAS manuscript and at the earliest reports using anti-CD40L in experimental models of disease, I come to the (perhaps mistaken) opinion that BGEN and IDPH are in an enviable position.
I'll try to let the thread know more about a forum where I can comment further. Two factors make this risky business: (1) the U.S. is a "first to invent" country, and nasty patent claims can pop up after one chooses a path that appears rational; and (2) even though anti-CD40L has just recently hit clinical studies, there are already big efforts to find small molecule inhibitors, both to block interaction at the cell surface with the gp39 ligand and to block intracellular signaling mechanisms.
Rick |
