OXFORD, England, December 17 /PRNewswire/ --
- New Deal Provides a Further Opportunity for OGeS to Grow its Therapeutic Antibody Pipeline
Oxford Genome Sciences (UK) Ltd "OGeS" announces today that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with Amgen to discover, develop and commercialise novel therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer. This new collaboration will enable OGeS to further strengthen its pipeline of fully human therapeutic antibodies (mAbs) in cancer based on the target discovery capabilities of its unique OGAP(R) database.
Under the collaboration, OGeS and Amgen will jointly discover novel antibodies for the treatment of cancer. The companies will generate fully human antibodies using Amgen's XenoMouse(R) technology, which was acquired through its acquisition of Abgenix. These antibodies will be raised against the novel druggable targets that OGeS has identified through its unique Oxford Genome Anatomy Project (OGAP(R)) database. OGAP has been developed into the world's largest cancer protein database, to discover novel clinically relevant drug targets and diagnostics.
Today's agreement covers up to six oncology programmes. Amgen will have the right to select up to three programmes, while OGeS will retain rights to the remainder. Once Amgen has produced the initial antibody leads, OGeS will carry out the initial pre-clinical assessment of each antibody programme.
Dr Christian Rohlff, CEO of OGeS, commented: "I am very happy to be collaborating with Amgen in our effort to discover and develop novel fully human antibodies for the treatment of cancer. I am confident that by using our complementary expertise we will be able to develop a promising and valuable pipeline of antibodies. This significant new deal, together with our existing Medarex collaboration, further underpins OGeS' transition from a target discovery to a product development company and is an important step in our ambition to become a key player in the field of therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer."
Amgen's Senior Vice President and Head of Research, Dave Lacey, M.D., said: "We are pleased to enter into this collaboration that takes advantage of Amgen's expertise in monoclonal antibody technology and the database that Oxford Genome Sciences has established."
OGeS' new collaboration with Amgen follows a previous agreement that the company signed with Medarex and Biosite (see press release of 18 September 2007). OGeS now has access to the two leading technologies that are used to generate fully human monoclonal antibodies as it works to develop its own product pipeline of cancer therapeutics and diagnostics.
About Oxford Genome Sciences
Oxford Genome Sciences (OGeS) is focused on the development of targeted medicines for oncology. The company uses OGAP(R), which it has developed into the world's largest cancer protein database, to discover novel clinically relevant drug targets and diagnostics.
OGeS' strategy is to use its unique and integrated OGAP(R) discovery platform in alliances with the world's leading antibody companies to develop OGeS targets into new antibody therapeutics and diagnostics that will deliver innovative and cost-effective medicines to fulfil unmet patient needs in the field of cancer. The company has signed a number of collaborations in the area of cancer, which are together designed to achieve OGeS' objective of developing novel personalised solutions to the management of cancer. Specifically in 2006, OGeS entered into partnerships with Medarex to discover, develop and commercialise new human antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancers and with Biosite to develop a new diagnostic protein panel for relapsing colorectal cancer.
OGeS, a privately held company, was formed in 2004 and is based near Oxford, UK.
About OGAP(R)
Oxford Genome Anatomy Project (OGAP) holds the world's largest proprietary collection of proteins represented by the database. It integrates genomic, proteomic and clinical information derived from blood and tissue studies for a large number of diseases from 50 different human tissues and representing 60 diseases and contains over one million peptide sequences, mapped to approximately 15,000 genes and over eight million SNPs and haplotypes. OGAP oncology contains proteomic data on 5,000 cancer membrane proteins combined with their genomic and clinical information derived from human blood and cancer tissue studies.
SOURCE Oxford Genome Sciences
