Partnership will initially focus on HGS targets in the field of inflammation.
BioInvent International and Human Genome Sciences (HGS) are teaming up in a mAb collaboration focused on targets identified by HGS. The partnership will focus initially on inflammation.
BioInvent will use its antibody discovery technology to generate and develop mAb candidates. The deal gives both partners the right to participate in development and global commercialization of each antibody. They will share research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization costs as well as revenues.
The partnership with BioInvent represents the latest step in the HGS New Targets Initiative. The firm says following a careful review of its therapeutic and diagnostic targets, it has selected some targets for further research and potential development, both in-house and through research collaborations.
Bioinvent says its antibody discovery platform, n-CoDeR, comprises over 20 billion human antibody genes to significantly increase the likelihood of identifying antibodies with both high affinity and specificity against a particular target. Each antibody has a combination of complementarity determining regions (CDRs), which were originally isolated from the antibodies of a large number of healthy volunteers.
The n-CoDeR technology uses a process to recombine the CDRs into new antibody molecules. BioInvent claims that this allows the library to contain a wider variety of antibodies than could have been created naturally by the human immune system. Two library formats exist, one containing the smaller scFv antibody fragment and the other containing the Fab antibody fragment.
“BioInvent and HGS’ research strengths are both complementary and synergistic,” remarks Svein Mathisen, BioInvent’s CEO. “We believe this collaborative agreement is a strong and valuable way of building our pipeline of innovative drugs.”
The firm has four antibody products in clinical development. TB-402 is a thrombosis candidate being developed in partnership with ThromboGenics. The antibody is currently in Phase II trials. TB-403 is an oncology compound partnered with ThromboGenics and Roche that has completed Phase I trials. The atherosclerosis candidate BI-204 has also completed Phase I development and is partnered with Genentech. BI-505 is an in-house oncology candidate currently undergoing Phase I evaluation.
