Affitech Signs Antibody Research and Licensing Agreement with Roche
2007 BIO International Convention Booth 2065
OSLO, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Affitech AS, the Norwegian human antibody therapeutics company, today announced that they have signed a research and licensing agreement with Roche to produce fully human monoclonal antibodies against an unnamed oncology target. The agreement tasks Affitech with first using their proprietary phagemid library, high throughput screening technology and antibody engineering platforms to identify candidate antibodies which Roche would then utilize for further development and commercialization. The financial terms of the collaboration include research fees, milestone payments and royalties on net sales upon commercialization of any product.
"These are exciting times for Affitech," commented Martin Welschof, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Affitech. "We are delighted that Roche has chosen to partner with us based on our significant achievements to date in the human antibody field. Partnering is a key part of our twin-track strategy of generating revenue streams from collaborations parallel to developing our own therapeutic candidate pipeline. This new agreement is the latest in a series of collaborations, also in oncology that we have made with some of the other global antibody companies including the US based Xoma and Peregrine Pharmaceuticals”.
Editor’s notes
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 AffiScreeN™ 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 XOMA, NatImmune, Peregrine, Viventia, Dyax, and others. Further information at www.affitech.com.
