License Involves Abgenix's High Throughput Antibody Selection Technology
FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Abgenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: ABGX)
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 http://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.
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CONTACT:
Ina Cu, Manager, Investor/Public Relations of
Abgenix, Inc., 510-608-4662
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