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Breitling patent portfolio occupies key position in growing antibody market
OSLO, NORWAY - May 2nd, 2007
The human antibody company, Affitech AS, announced today that it has further strengthened its intellectual property (IP) position in the human antibody discovery area through a series of IP cross-licensing and in-licensing deals. The Company's primary antibody library display patents are known as "Breitling" IP. Originating from the DKFZ (German Cancer Research Center) of Heidelberg, Germany, the Breitling patents cover the use of full-length pIII phage protein as a scaffold in a phagemid vector, and are one of the fundamental group of patents for the phagemid display of antibody, antibody fragments and proteins. Affitech's new deals include exclusive worldwide in licensing of a sublicensable Diabody IP from Pharmexa (Copenhagen, Denmark) and a non-exclusive worldwide sub-licensable research license of single-chain antibodies (SCA) from Micromet (Munich, Germany). These follow previous cross-licenses of Breitling IP with Dyax's (Cambridge, MA) "Ladner" family of phage display technology patents and XOMA's (Berkeley, CA) bacterial cell expression (BCE) technology for developing antibody products.
Dr. Martin Welschof, Chief Executive Officer of Affitech commented: "The antibody therapeutic market continues to grow with a record number of candidates moving through pre-clinical and clinical trials. At the same time the number of companies with proprietary antibody discovery technologies shrinks due to mergers and acquisition. Therefore Affitech expects to play a pivotal enabling role for other companies in antibody discovery and development through our strengthened IP and innovative technology portfolio, such as Cell-Based-Antibody-Selection (C.B.A.S.) and AffiScreeN technologies. The Breitling IP applies not only to screening libraries, but also extends to antibodies discovered and developed for use as diagnostics or therapeutic products."
"Affitech will continue to solicit partnerships with bio/pharmaceutical companies involving out-licensing of its strengthened IP portfolio. This should provide more choice of antibody forms and accelerated discovery programs for both Affitech and its partners," further commented Dr. Rathin C. Das, Chief Business Officer of the Affitech Group.
Note to editors:
Affitech AS is a privately held human therapeutic antibody discovery and development company with headquarters and R&D facilities in Oslo, Norway and its US subsidiary in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Company's current disease focus is oncology and it utilizes two discrete but unique approaches for the discovery of fully human antibodies - (i) Molecule Based Antibody Discovery, and (ii) Cell Based Antibody Discovery. Molecule Based Antibody Discovery involves proprietary PhagemidScreeN and AffiScreenN™ technologies and uses validated targets for discovery purpose. Cell Based Antibody Discovery is based on CBAS™ technology, which is a "reverse-screening" approach for discovering antibodies and their cognate targets utilizing disease-specific cells. Several of the Company's proprietary product candidates currently in development were generated by CBAS™. Affitech also sells its proprietary Protein L product line for the purification of antibody and antibody fragments. Affitech offers collaborators a flexible business model and very competitive price structure with low royalty stacking. The Company has concluded deals with commercial organizations such as Peregrine, XOMA, NatImmune, Viventia, Dyax, Micromet, Pharmexa and others. Further information at www.affitech.com.
For further information please contact Affitech AS
Martin Welschof, CEO
Tel: +47 22 95 88 77
Email:
Web page: http://www.affitech.com
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