Scancell Signs New Agreement with Biovation to DeImmunise SC101
NOTTINGHAM, England, Jan. 11, 2005 – Scancell Ltd, the Nottingham-based cancer therapeutics company, has announced that it has secured an agreement with Biovation under which Biovation will apply their DeImmunisation technology to up to two further monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) in Scancell’s portfolio, including SC101, Scancell’s anti-cancer MAb against Lewis y/b. Lewisy/b is a cell surface carbohydrate blood group antigen whose expression is very low in normal tissue but over-expressed on breast, lung, colon and ovarian cancer cells. Mouse antibodies recognising Lewisy/b have induced tumour cell death and inhibited growth of various tumour lines. In animal studies, tumour growth was inhibited by anti-Lewisy/b antibodies alone, and especially when combined with 5-fluorouracil, an antimetabolite that disrupts cancer cell growth. The DeImmunisation™ technology identifies and removes T-cell epitopes from the therapeutic antibody, which substantially reduces its immunogenicity. Since potentially immunogenic regions of the antibody are removed by single amino acid substitutions, immunogenicity can be eliminated while retaining the biological properties of the starting molecule. Commenting on the agreement, Professor Lindy Durrant, CSO of Scancell, said: "We are very pleased to be working with Biovation once again. This agreement offers Scancell the opportunity to DeImmunise a further two antibody therapeutics, a vital step in preparing these products for clinical trials.” Dr. Frank Carr, President and Chief Executive Officer at Biovation, commented: "We are delighted to be working with and supporting Scancell in their efforts to develop exciting and innovative anti-cancer therapeutics for the clinic”
Notes to Editors
About Scancell:
Scancell Ltd is a company focussed on the discovery and development of products that harness the immune system in a unique way to treat or prevent cancer. Founded in 1996 as a spin-out from Nottingham University, Scancell in based in state-of-the-art facilities at the BioCity innovation and technology centre, Nottingham. The Company, which currently employs 15 individuals, has secured ?.7million of private equity and commercial funding. Scancell has four monoclonal antibody products in active development and has also developed its patent protected ImmunoBody™ technology for the discovery of improved cancer vaccines. For more information about Scancell visit www.scancell.co.uk
About Biovation:
Biovation is a UK-based antibody and protein company with a proprietary technology, DeImmunisation™, designed to genetically engineer antibodies and other proteins for administration to humans without immunogenicity. All biologics, even fully-human antibodies and human-derived proteins, can potentially cause an adverse immune response when administered to patients. DeImmunisation™ provides a means for re-engineering these molecules to eliminate this risk and generate biologics suitable for multiple dose, chronic administration. Biovation has successfully applied DeImmunisation™ to a variety of antibody and protein products, principally through partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies worldwide. (www.biovation.com) |
