I'm sort of intrigued by this deal and I really wonder how strong the Seragen IP rights are. If I understand things correctly, this amounts to nanotechnology. This ''drug" is nothing but a tiny little machine that attaches itself to ''bad" cells and injects them with a toxin which then cause the cells to die off.
I'm assuming that Seragen has some patent protection on at least some of this. If so, there could be a lot of money waiting.
I gather that they already have proteins that bind to different receptors and I would guess that it might not be that hard to change the binding part of the protein to attach to a different receptor. Now, Ligand does have some experience with receptors.... Also, I would expect that with some work, you can change the toxin too.
At some point in the not too distant future, it may well be possible to individualize ''drugs"; i.e., target them to specific abnormalities found in an affected individual. This seems to lead in that direction.
Yes, I am reaching here and please consider this pure unenlightened speculation. I just have a hard time believing that Robinson hasn't looked at this carefully before signing on the dotted line.
The whole thing is rather neat. Working on the cellular level where you can kill just the ''bad" cells is a whole lot better than the butchery we call treatment today.
By the way, does anyone know if there is work going on to use this technique as an antibiotic of sorts? Seems to be a natural application. Yes, it would probably have to be injected, but given the number of resistant strains that are cropping up, that may be acceptable. All you need is a binding domain that recognizes a receptor on an undesirable cell in the system and injects it with a suitable toxin.
Enough speculation for one day :-)
Cheers, Torben |
