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Biotech / Medical : HuMAB companies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Icebrg who wrote (159)	3/4/2002 2:05:50 PM
From: nigel bates	Respond to of 1022

Just parking. This is a bit old, but interesting background stuff - Novel human antibodies have enormous potential as therapeutic agents and research tools, but they are notoriously difficult to produce. They are particularly useful for the detection of specific molecules, and a good method to produce random antibody libraries would mean that "more substances could be analyzed, which is valuable in the area of proteomics, where there is a need for massive analyses," says Dr. Eskil Söderlind, Director of Technology Application at BioInvent Therapeutic (Lund, Sweden). Techniques to produce human antibodies from antibody libraries have been around for about ten years, but they have some disadvantages. Some techniques take antibody genes isolated from human B cells and randomly combine these to form the six complementarity determining regions (CDRs)--amino acid sequences that occupy the tips of antibodies and interact directly with the target, thus dictating an antibody's specificity. Such methods provide novel antibodies that usually fold correctly, but the diversity of the resulting antibodies is somewhat limited because three randomized CDRs are produced in two separate groups, then combined to form a complete antibody. Other methods introduce a technical solution to this problem by using synthetic antibody fragments that are designed and created in the laboratory. This approach yields novel antibody sequences but it also produces unnatural antibodies that may not fold properly, and which may themselves draw an immune response. Söderlind and his colleagues have developed a technology that allows them to vary all six CDRs of an antibody simultaneously into one single antibody framework. The result is a much larger range of potential recombinations, yielding antibody libraries with high genetic diversity--and since all of them originate from the human immune system, the potential for an immune reaction is minimal. "No technology has been available to achieve this combination of six natural CDRs. There have been discussions about whether one single framework immunoglobulin scaffold could hold all possible antibody specificities: We have demonstrated that one single framework indeed can contain all possible specificities. This is totally new from a scientific point of view," says Söderlind. Söderlind and his colleagues used the method to create antibodies that recognize carbohydrates, which has been very difficult to do using other systems. They also obtained extremely high-specificity antibodies--some with sub-nanomolar ranges. That has only been achieved with larger libraries. "In other words, we have a smaller library that performs as a larger library. Thus, creating a larger library based on our concept would most probably give antibodies with even higher affinities," says Söderlind. "The antibodies can be used to detect and analyze a huge spectrum of different substances. This is nothing new. The new thing is the speed by which the antibodies are produced and specially the quality of them," says Söderlind. Reference: "Recombining germline-derived CDR sequences for creating diverse single-framework antibody libraries," E Söderlind, L Strandbert, P Jirholt, N Kobayashi, V Alexeiva, A-M Åberg, A Nilsson, B Jansson, M Ohlin, C Wingren, L Danielsson, R Carlsson & CAK Borrebaeck, Nature Biotechnology, vol. 18, no. 8, p. 852-856. An abstract of this article can be viewed at: nature.com Also see - bioinvent.com

To: Icebrg who wrote (159)	3/14/2002 3:55:15 AM
From: nigel bates	Respond to of 1022

OGS and BioInvent form Therapeutic Antibodies Alliance OXFORD, UK and LUND, Sweden, March 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Oxford GlycoSciences Plc (LSE: OGS, Nasdaq: OGSI) and BioInvent International AB (SAX: BINV) announced today a three year collaboration to identify, develop, manufacture and commercialise novel therapeutic antibodies, which will target antigens provided by OGS and will be produced using BioInvent's novel antibody technology platform, n-CoDeR(TM). Under the terms of this agreement, OGS will provide at least five target antigens per year, identified and validated through OGS' proteomics process. BioInvent will apply its proprietary n-CoDeR phage display library to identify antibodies targeted to OGS' antigens. The two companies will then work collaboratively to select and optimise therapeutic antibody candidates to take into development. BioInvent shall also manufacture the pre-clinical and clinical material in its cGMP-certified cell culture facility. Although complete financial terms were not disclosed, OGS will contribute research funding and will pay a technology access fee to BioInvent. Therapeutic antibody candidates identified will then be developed either jointly by the two companies or solely by OGS. In the case of jointly- developed candidates both the costs of research and development and subsequent revenues will be equally split. BioInvent will be able to select at least one such antibody each year. For all other therapeutic antibody candidates, OGS will be solely responsible for further research and development activities and BioInvent will receive success-related milestone and royalty payments. OGS will retain all commercial rights for these solely developed products. Further, subject to the approval of the BioInvent shareholders at its AGM on 17 April 2002, OGS will make an equity investment of $5 million in BioInvent at an agreed premium to the average closing price of BioInvent's shares over the ten days prior to this announcement. Monoclonal antibodies are being recognised as an increasingly important class of drug entity, with potential application against many diseases; analysts have estimated the market potential for antibody therapies to be as high as $24 billion by 2010 (1). The two most commonly used routes for creating monoclonal antibodies from target proteins are by immunising humanised mice and by screening against phage display libraries. OGS accesses state-of-the-art mouse technology and manufacturing capacity through its relationship with Medarex. Through this collaboration with BioInvent, OGS now adds a state-of-the-art phage technology partner, with its own specialised platform and manufacturing capability. Diversity in antigen targets requires diversity in antibody technologies; OGS therefore views the two techniques to be complementary and believes that it has considerably strengthened its position in antibodies and its ability to exploit its proprietary disease- associated protein bank in the discovery and development of therapeutics. Commenting on the deal, Michael Kranda, OGS' Chief Executive Officer said: ``We are delighted to get access to BioInvent's proprietary phage-display technology and libraries and we believe that BioInvent's manufacturing experience and capacity are strong assets in its business plan. This relationship will complement our therapeutic antibody discovery and development platform, providing us with a wider range of options to develop antibody-based therapeutic products.'' Svein Mathisen, BioInvent's President and Chief Executive Officer, added: ``The combination of high-quality targets discovered through OGS' well established proteomics process and the flexibility and speed of our antibody selection process holds the promise to quickly generate an innovative therapeutic antibody pipeline. This is an important step for BioInvent in realising our strategy to build a portfolio of proprietary and partnered drugs. We look forward to starting this important collaborative programme with one of the leading European biopharmaceutical companies.'' Notes to Editors OGS has developed a patented technology platform in the emerging field of proteomics, the comprehensive study of proteins, integrating proteomics with genomics to create an innovative drug discovery platform. OGS' proteomics collaborations with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies include Bayer, Pioneer Hi-Bred/DuPont, Medarex/Genmab, GlaxoSmithKline, NeoGenesis and Pfizer. OGS has technology development collaborations with Applera, Cambridge Antibody Technology, Packard BioScience and the Institute for Systems Biology. OGS has also entered into a joint venture, Confirmant Limited, to develop the Protein Atlas of the Human Genome(TM). OGS has drug research discovery programmes in central nervous system, cancer, infectious disease and glycosphingolipid (GSL) storage disorders. OGS has had submissions to regulatory authorities accepted for review in both Europe and the US for its development compound, Vevesca (OGT 918), for the treatment of type 1 Gaucher disease. Vevesca (OGT 918) is an investigational drug and has not received approval for marketing in any country. BioInvent International AB, listed on the O-list of the Swedish Exchange, is a biotechnology company devoted to providing state-of-the-art antibody technology to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. A cornerstone is its proprietary human antibody gene library, n-CoDeR(TM). This is a collection of more than ten billion functional antibody genes that are ready to be screened against desired antigens. n-CoDeR(TM) has been used successfully for the isolation of antibody fragments with specificity for a number of antigens, including peptides, proteins and carbohydrates. BioInvent's capabilities in large-scale contract manufacturing of protein- based drugs through a state-of-the-art cGMP-certified facility further underpin its competitiveness in the antibody arena. The cGMP-certified manufacturing facility is designed to meet FDA and EU regulations from early clinical development to commercial scale-up, with multi-kilogram annual capacity. BioInvent offers biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies access to n-CoDeR(TM) and its manufacturing capabilities through collaborative research and development programs. Antibodies are currently manufactured for use in all phases of clinical trials in both the US and across Europe. BioInvent is headquartered in Lund, Sweden, employing a total of 115 people. For additional information, see www.bioinvent.com