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Biotech / Medical : MEDX ... anybody following? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Icebrg who wrote (648)	3/19/2003 6:50:30 PM
From: Icebrg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2240

PRIMABioMed Subsidiary and Medarex Announce Commercial Alliance to Develop Cancer Antibodies Wednesday March 19, 6:00 am ET VICTORIA, Australia and PRINCETON, N.J., March 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PRIMABioMed Limited's (ASX: PRR - News) subsidiary Oncomab Ltd., and Medarex, Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDX - News) today announced that they have entered into an agreement to co-develop fully human antibodies for treating cancer, and to jointly commercialize any resulting antibody products. Under the terms of the agreement, Oncomab and Medarex expect to share equally the costs of, as well as any future revenues arising from, the development of any antibody products. "We believe that partnering with Medarex, a leading antibody company, represents a significant step towards the commercial validation of our science and intellectual property," stated Marcus Clark, Chief Executive Officer of Prima BioMed. "We are pleased to form an alliance with Prima BioMed's subsidiary, Oncomab. Our scientists have known each other for years, and we are delighted that this is evolving into a real commercial partnership. Oncomab brings an exciting target to the collaboration and I am hopeful that our teamwork will rapidly lead to clinical candidates," said Donald L. Drakeman, President and CEO of Medarex. "While mass production of monoclonal antibodies was first demonstrated in 1975, it is only in the past three to five years that the FDA has approved an increasing number of antibodies as human therapeutics," Mr. Clark said. "Due to advances in humanization technology, antibody therapies have rapidly come of age as an important new treatment technology. Antibody therapeutics have surpassed $3 billion in worldwide sales in 2001." Antibodies are designed to bind to specific target molecules making them very precise. The Oncomab technology targets a protein that is preferentially expressed on a broad range of tumor types. By targeting this protein the antibody may cause tumor cell death. "We believe that these antibodies are like `super' proteins that much more powerfully attack cancer than the body's own immune system," commented Mr. Clark. In 2002, Prima BioMed announced exciting results in mice that demonstrated the effectiveness of a tumor-targeting antibody against breast, colon and prostate human cancer cell lines. The Oncomab-Medarex collaboration is designed to generate a fully human antibody targeted to a non-disclosed tumor specific protein and move it through clinical trials. This work is expected to improve the effectiveness of the potential product and reduce the risk of adverse effects associated with animal derived antibodies. "Prima BioMed exercised rights over cancer antibody technology from the Austin Research Institute (ARI), Melbourne, Australia and securing a partner to humanize the antibody was a key part of our development program. This deal with Medarex is the result of six months of internal review of international companies with patented technology to generate human antibodies. We believe that we have an exceptional target and it was therefore important to select the company that shares a sense of this position and provided the priority we were seeking," stated Mr. Clark. Oncomab and Medarex have formed a Joint Steering Committee that is currently finalizing a product development program for joint research activities at Medarex and Oncomab's Melbourne laboratories based at the Austin Research Institute (ARI). Immunization of mice will be undertaken by Medarex and assays to test the antibodies are currently being optimized in Melbourne by the scientists at the ARI. "Medarex's collaborative approach to the development ensures that our scientists continue to be intimately involved in the program and contribute the expertise generated in the earlier work conducted at the ARI," said Mr. Clark. The tumor antigen targeted in this project is a protein found on the surface of cancer cells. The companies believe that its preferential expression by cancer tissues makes it an ideal target for antibody therapy, as the antibodies are unlikely to bind to and destroy normal tissues. This tumor antigen is believed to be expressed on a wide variety of solid tumors including breast, lung, colon, ovarian, and prostate, as well as on lymphomas. These multiple indications provide for a potentially large market opportunity.