Medarex and Novimmune announce collaboration to develop therapeutic antibodies
Medarex, Inc. and NovImmune SA today announced a collaboration for the development of fully human therapeutic antibodies. Medarex expects to use its UltiMAb Human Antibody Development SystemSM to generate antibodies to disease targets discovered by NovImmune.
Under the terms of the agreement, NovImmune plans to develop and commercialize human antibody products resulting from the collaboration. Medarex expects to receive license fees and milestone payments as well as royalties on commercial sales of products resulting from this agreement. In addition, if NovImmune and Medarex both agree, products can be jointly developed and commercialized under the agreement.
"We are pleased with the opportunity to utilize our UltiMAb system to develop antibodies to disease targets identified by NovImmune," said Donald Drakeman, President and CEO of Medarex.
"We are delighted to be working with Medarex and expect that this collaboration will accelerate our drug development process from novel targets to clinical trials. In addition, we believe that this collaboration allows flexibility in the choice of business models, with the possibility of different degrees of involvement by Medarex in the development of our new therapeutic monoclonal antibodies," said Jack Barbut, CEO of NovImmune.
NovImmune SA is a privately held Swiss company actively involved in the development of therapeutic agents for inflammation, the treatment of autoimmune diseases, immunosuppression and immunomodulation. Founded in Switzerland in 1998, NovImmune uses its novel proprietary technologies to develop therapeutic solutions based on recently identified novel targets in the human immune system. NovImmune's mission is to develop novel drug treatments for type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, inflammation, septic shock, tissue rejection after transplantation, and other debilitating immune conditions. The company successfully completed a first round of financing of 15 million CHF in May 2000.
Medarex, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics to fight cancer and other life-threatening and debilitating diseases. Medarex has assembled a broad platform of patented technologies for antibody discovery and development, including the UltiMAbTM Human Antibody Development SystemSM for the creation of high-affinity, fully human antibodies; T-12 DevelopmentSM offering the potential to move from target to trial in approximately 12 months; and, Trans-Phage TechnologySM combining high throughput screening with fully human antibody development. Medarex creates and develops fully human antibodies for itself and others, offering a full range of antibody related capabilities, including pre-clinical and clinical development supported by cGMP manufacturing services. For more information about Medarex, visit its website at www.medarex.com.
Source: Medarex, Inc.
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