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Biotech / Medical : Cambridge Antibody Technology Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tuck who wrote (217)	12/19/2001 1:41:54 PM
From: nigel bates	Respond to of 625

The PRs - MELBOURN, England and PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Cambridge Antibody Technology (Nasdaq: CATG; LSE: CAT) and Incyte Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: INCY - news) today announce an agreement which gives CAT access to the Incyte LifeSeq® Gold database and options for product development rights. Under the terms of the agreement, CAT will receive access to Incyte's LifeSeq® Gold database and to high quality, sequence verified human cDNA clones and rights to use this information for therapeutic antibody product development. In addition, CAT will have the ability to take several exclusive licences under Incyte antibody patent rights to discover, develop and commercialise therapeutic antibodies with specificity for target proteins in the database. CAT will pay a licence fee, plus milestones and royalties in relation to therapeutic human antibody products developed. Dr. David Chiswell, CAT's Chief Executive Officer, commented, ``This alliance with Incyte presents CAT with a further opportunity to deliver antibody-based drugs to genomics targets. CAT is very pleased to obtain patent rights from Incyte to research, develop and commercialise antibody-based drugs. CAT has already demonstrated the power of combining antibody phage display and genomics-based target discovery, and this agreement adds a significant new source of genomics-derived targets to fuel CAT's drug development pipeline.'' ``We're excited by the alliance with Cambridge Antibody Technology,'' said Paul A. Friedman, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Incyte. ``CAT has developed an advanced antibody technology platform and is experienced in the development of therapeutic human antibody products. In addition, this alliance demonstrates our continued commitment to leverage our position as the leader of genomic information and reaffirms the value of LifeSeq Gold for human antibody therapeutic companies such as CAT.'' ... MELBOURN, England and MELBOURNE, Australia, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Cambridge Antibody Technology (Nasdaq: CATG; LSE: CAT) and AMRAD Corporation Limited (ASX: AML) today announce a product development collaboration committed to the joint discovery and development of human antibody-based therapeutics that neutralize the receptor for granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF Receptor). Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will fund all development jointly through to completion of Phase II proof-of-concept studies. CAT then has primary responsibility for further development and commercialization. AMRAD has the option to receive milestone and royalty payments from CAT or to participate jointly with CAT in further development and commercialization. AMRAD will contribute its patent estate, intellectual property and know-how pertaining to the therapeutic target, pre-clinical and development capabilities to the collaboration, and CAT will contribute its proprietary human antibody phage display technology, high-throughput functional screening, pre-clinical, manufacturing and development capabilities. Recent studies have indicated that the cytokine GM-CSF plays a central role in the development of rheumatoid arthritis. When GM-CSF binds to its receptor, it induces the pro-inflammatory cascade underlying the pathogenesis of this disease. There is thus a sound rationale for neutralizing the interaction between GM-CSF and its receptor as a means of intervening in inflammatory disease processes. AMRAD has been granted patents to the GM-CSF receptor target in Europe, USA and Australia, and patents are pending in Canada and Japan. Dr. David Chiswell, Chief Executive Officer of CAT, commented, ``We are extremely pleased to be entering this relationship with AMRAD to develop novel strategies for treating inflammatory disease. It underscores CAT's commitment both to share in the risks and rewards of antibody product development and to build a drug pipeline serving areas of significant medical need. CAT and AMRAD are committed to a close collaboration to capture the significant long-term value in novel human proteins to treat human disease.'' Dr. Sandra Webb, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of AMRAD, added, ``The number of antibodies which have been identified and are presently in development using CAT technology provides AMRAD with great confidence that the collaboration we have initiated with CAT will deliver vitally important new medicines and great commercial results.'' ...