XOMA and Diversa Sign License and Antibody Development Agreement
Tuesday January 6, 7:31 am ET
BERKELEY, Calif. & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2004--XOMA Ltd. (Nasdaq:XOMA - News) and Diversa Corporation (Nasdaq:DVSA - News) today announced that they have entered into a licensing and product development agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Diversa will receive a license to use XOMA's antibody expression technology for developing antibody products independently and with collaborators, and an option to a license for the production of antibodies under the XOMA patents. XOMA will receive a license fee and potential future milestone and royalty payments. Under the terms of the development portion of the agreement, XOMA and Diversa will combine their respective capabilities to discover and develop antibodies for autoimmune-related diseases. Diversa will receive research funding and is entitled to receive milestones and royalties on any drugs developed under the agreement.
"We are excited to announce this relationship with Diversa," said John L. Castello, XOMA's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Their ability to generate and optimize antibodies against challenging targets and to improve antibody performance is a valuable capability. XOMA's bacterial cell expression technology, in turn, is a valuable asset for Diversa's antibody discovery program."
"We are pleased by this new agreement with XOMA, a company that has demonstrated its ability to successfully develop protein therapeutics and bring them to market," stated Jay M. Short, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Diversa Corporation. "This advances our pharmaceutical strategy for establishing drug development partnerships in areas other than anti-infectives, which we are focused on developing internally."
About Diversa's Antibody Building System (ABS)
Diversa's Antibody Building System is designed to deliver superior antibodies by generating new antibodies against challenging targets and improving suboptimal antibodies. To create new antibodies, Diversa utilizes its synthetic antibody library of over a billion clones as a basis for generating antibodies against both traditional and refractory targets, as well as for creating agonistic antibodies. In addition to this de novo antibody generation, Diversa's Medicinal Evolution capabilities can be applied to engineer existing antibodies to meet specific criteria including stability, solubility, and affinity.
About XOMA's Cell Expression System
XOMA's Bacterial Cell Expression System is a flexible package of complementary technologies, materials, methods and know-how that provides many of today's leading biotechnology companies and XOMA collaborators with the ability to produce antibodies in bacteria for use as therapeutics and medical diagnostics, as well as for drug discovery, lead optimization and research purposes. The value of XOMA's Bacterial Cell Expression System's ability to produce a wide variety of immunoglobulins is well recognized, as evidenced by the fact that more than 25 companies currently hold a license for expression of molecules in bacteria.
About Diversa
Diversa Corporation is a leader in applying proprietary genomic technologies for the rapid discovery and optimization of novel products from genes and gene pathways. Diversa is directing its integrated portfolio of technologies to the discovery, evolution, and production of commercially valuable molecules with pharmaceutical applications, such as optimized monoclonal antibodies and orally active drugs, as well as enzymes and small molecules with agricultural, chemical, and industrial applications. In addition, Diversa has formed alliances and joint ventures with market leaders, such as BASF, The Dow Chemical Company, DuPont Bio-Based Materials, Givaudan Flavors Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Invitrogen Corporation, and affiliates of Syngenta AG. Additional information is available at Diversa's website: www.diversa.com. |
