$17 million? $17 muh...... muh..............
Wow.
Look at this deal! An option to co-develop.
Monday February 5, 9:00 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Abgenix, Inc.
Abgenix and Celltech Enter Technology Licensing
and Co-Development Agreement
License Involves Abgenix's High Throughput Antibody Selection Technology
FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Abgenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: ABGX - news) announced today an agreement with
Celltech Group plc (NYSE: CLL; London: CCH) which provides Celltech with rights to use Abgenix's proprietary high
throughput antibody selection technology to rapidly identify high affinity candidates from antibodies Celltech will generate from
human B-cells and ordinary mice. This is the first license by Abgenix of the SLAM (Selected Lymphocyte Antibody Method)
technology platform it obtained when it acquired ImmGenics, Inc. in December 2000. The agreement does not license the use
of Abgenix's XenoMouse (TM) technology for generating fully human antibodies.
Under the terms of the agreement, Celltech will pay Abgenix $17 million in new Celltech ordinary shares plus a royalty on sales
and grants to Abgenix an option to co-develop certain antibodies selected with Abgenix's technology. In return, Celltech
receives the right to employ Abgenix's high throughput selection technology at Celltech's Seattle Research Center to identify
new proteins as drug discovery targets. In addition, Celltech obtains rights to use the Abgenix selection technology at Celltech's
Research Centre in Slough, UK, in relation to all of Celltech's disease targets, with the exception of certain pre-defined
proteins. The agreement provides for unlimited use of the technology in Celltech's research operations, and its use in up to five
antibodies per year entering clinical development.
``We are delighted to enter this agreement with Celltech, a leading antibody company,'' stated R. Scott Greer, chairman and
chief executive officer of Abgenix. ``This agreement validates the value of our new screening technology platform and may
provide additions to our growing portfolio of proprietary product candidates.''
Abgenix's High Throughput Selection Technology
Advantages Over Hybridoma Technology: A significant advantage of Abgenix's' high throughput selection technology is that the
optimal antibody is selected from millions, rather than hundreds to thousands, of antibody-producing B-cells derived from an
immunized mouse. This is accomplished by applying techniques for culturing the B-cells directly, thus bypassing hybridoma
technology, which captures only about 1% of the antibodies originally generated by the mouse. Using specially developed
microplate-based assays, the B-cells are rapidly assayed over a period of several days. Typically, thousands of antigen-reactive
cell-clones are identified, representing thousands of individual antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies. The number of different
antigen-reactive monoclonal antibodies identified in a single experiment is typically increased by 100 to 1000-fold. After
applying additional rapid microplate-based assays to measure and rank antibodies by affinity and function, individual B-cell
clones producing extremely high quality antibodies can be selected.
Another significant advantage of Abgenix's high throughput selection technology is that by bypassing the hybridoma generation
step, researchers can move rapidly into a recombinant manufacturing cell line. Individual B cells selected using the technology
are isolated and the antibody genes can be directly introduced into a manufacturing cell line. The resulting cell line then can be
developed for clinical trial testing over essentially the same timeline as that required for hybridoma cell line development.
Advantages Over Phage Display Technology: Phage display technology, when applied to antibodies, also offers the potential of
screening large numbers of antibody clones. However, there are several drawbacks to this approach. First, since for ethical
reasons it is not practical to immunize humans, and the phage library is derived from human immune tissue, the library is typically
``nonimmune.'' Therefore, the antibody response cannot be driven toward high specificity and high affinity and is instead a result
of random combinations and mutagenesis. As a result, the antibodies derived from nonimmune human antibody phage display
libraries are typically of substantially lower affinity than those derived from immunized donors. The combination of Abgenix's
high throughput selection technology with XenoMouse provides full access to the repertoire of fully human antibodies that have
been naturally affinity matured in the mouse.
A second disadvantage of phage display is that the original pairing of the antibody heavy and light chains, both chains of which
contribute to the antibody's binding affinity, is lost in the cloning process, and the probability of restoring these original pairs is
extremely low. As a result, significant manipulation may be required to achieve affinity levels appropriate for clinical trials. The
combination of Abgenix's high throughput selection technology and Abgenix's XenoMouse takes advantage of the natural in
vivo affinity maturation process and the maintenance of the original heavy and light chain pairs.
Abgenix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of fully human monoclonal
antibody therapies for a variety of diseases. The company's antibody technology platform, which includes XenoMouse(TM)
technology, enables the rapid generation and selection of high affinity, fully human antibody product candidates to essentially
any disease target appropriate for antibody therapy. Abgenix leverages its leadership position in human antibody technology by
building a large and diversified product portfolio through the establishment of licensing arrangements with multiple
pharmaceutical, biotechnology and genomics companies and through the development of its own internal proprietary products.
For more information on Abgenix, visit the company's website at www.abgenix.com.
Celltech Group plc is one of Europe's largest biopharmaceutical companies, with an extensive late stage development pipeline
and a profitable, cash-generative pharmaceutical business. Celltech also possesses a drug discovery capability of exceptional
strength, including a leading position in antibody engineering.
Statements made in this press release about Abgenix's XenoMouse and high throughput selection technologies, product
development activities and collaborative arrangements other than statements of historical fact, are forward looking statements
and are subject to a number of uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made,
including risks associated with the success of clinical trials, the progress of research and product development programs, the
regulatory approval process, competitive products, future capital requirements and the extent and breadth of Abgenix's patent
portfolio. Please see Abgenix's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for information about risks that may
affect Abgenix.
SOURCE: Abgenix, Inc. |
