Collaboration Will Focus on Development of Novel Antibody-Based
Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
MELBOURN, England, and SEATTLE, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Cambridge Antibody
Technology (London: CAT) and Immunex Corporation (Nasdaq: IMNX) announce a
broad product development collaboration committed to the joint discovery,
development, marketing and sale of human antibody-based therapeutics for
autoimmune and inflammatory disorders.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will share equal
responsibility for all research and development, and split equally any
potential profits generated by product sales. Immunex will contribute two
undisclosed proprietary targets, scientific and development expertise to the
partnership, while CAT will contribute its proprietary human antibody phage
display technology and high throughput screening capabilities to identify
human antibodies.
"We are extremely pleased to be expanding our relationship with Immunex
for the custom design and development of human antibody drugs," said
Dr. David Chiswell, CAT Chief Executive Officer. "It is a further
demonstration of CAT's commitment to share in the risks and rewards of
antibody product development and to build a drug pipeline serving areas of
significant unmet medical need."
CAT will have primary responsibility for the discovery and optimization of
human antibodies specific to the Immunex targets. Immunex will be primarily
responsible for additional pre-clinical evaluation, clinical trials and
product commercialization.
"This new collaboration with CAT underscores our commitment to rapidly
develop antibody based therapeutics to our validated proprietary targets.
This agreement allows us to work with the skilled scientists and systems at
CAT and to accelerate the development timelines on two important drug
targets," said Douglas Williams, Ph.D., Immunex Executive Vice President and
Chief Technology Officer.
In November 2000, Immunex and CAT announced that Immunex received a
license from CAT to utilize its antibody library for reagent generation and
target validation. Under that agreement, Immunex will also receive up to
eight exclusive product options derived from its in house use of the CAT
library and CAT would potentially receive clinical milestones and royalty
payments on sales.
Immunex Corporation is a leading biopharmaceutical company dedicated to
improving lives through immune system science innovations.
Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT)
-- CAT is a UK biotechnology company using its proprietary technologies in
human monoclonal antibodies for drug discovery and drug development. Based in
Melbourn, 10 miles south of Cambridge, England, CAT currently employs around
220 people.
-- CAT is listed on the London Stock Exchange, having raised 41m pounds
sterling in its IPO in March 1997. A secondary offering in March 2000 raised
93m pounds.
-- CAT has a world-leading platform technology for rapidly isolating fully
human monoclonal antibodies using phage display systems. CAT has an extensive
phage display antibody library, currently incorporating around 100 billion
distinct antibodies. This library forms the basis for the company's strategy
to develop a portfolio of clinical development programmes and for discovering
new drug leads using functional genomics. Four human therapeutic antibodies
developed by CAT are at various stages of clinical trials.
-- CAT has a number of license and collaborative agreements in place with
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including: Eli Lilly, Pfizer, BASF
Pharma (Abbott), Genentech Inc., ICOS Corporation, Genetics Institute,
Wyeth-Ayerst, Human Genome Sciences, AstraZeneca, Pharmacia Corporation,
Oxford GlycoSciences, Genzyme, Zyomyx and Elan Corporation.
NOTE: Except for the historical information contained herein, this news
release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and
uncertainties. Among the factors that could cause actual results or timelines
to differ materially are risks associated with research and clinical
development, regulatory approvals, our supply capabilities and reliance on
third-party manufacturers, product commercialization, competition, litigation
and other risk factors listed from time to time in reports filed by Immunex
with the SEC, including but not limited to risks described under the caption
"Important Factors That May Affect Our Business, Our Results of Operations and
Our Stock Price" within our most recently filed Form 10-Q. The
forward-looking statements contained in this news release represent our
judgment as of the date of this release. Immunex undertakes no obligation to
publicly update any forward-looking statements.
SOURCE Immunex Corporation
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Related links:
http://www.immunex.com
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/434644.html or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 434644
CONTACT:
investors, John Aston, or media, Rowena
Gardner, or David Chiswell, Chief Executive Officer, all of
Cambridge Antibody Technology, 44-0-1763-263233; or media, Kris
Greco, 206-470-4871, or investors, Mark Leahy, 206-389-4363, both
of Immunex; or Kevin Smith or Graham Herring, both of Square Mile
(Europe), 44-0-20-7601-1000; or media, Brad Miles, ext. 17, or
investors, Brandon Lewis, ext. 15, both of BMC Communications/The
Trout Group (USA), 212-477-9007, for Cambridge Antibody
Technology
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