Alexion licenses antibody drug discovery system.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Cheshire, CT; 203-272-2596) announced that it has acquired exclusive worldwide commercial rights to a powerful new technology that allows the rapid discovery of new antibody drug candidates. The technology, which is protected by United States Patent 5,766,905, entitled "Cytoplasmic Bacteriophage Display System," involves a novel application of the T7Select Phage Display System from Novagen (Madison, WI). This new technology is an in vitro antibody discovery tool based on the display of combinatorial antibody libraries on the surface of the bacteriophage T7. Alexion's license covers human therapeutic antibodies. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"We are delighted to have executed this exclusive agreement with Novagen for the use of the T7Select System for antibody display and have already begun to exploit the system in the discovery of human recombinant antibodies," stated Dr. Stephen P. Squinto, Executive V.P. and Head of Research at Alexion. "We expect to take advantage of T7Select's unique properties to build novel combinatorial human antibody libraries in order to significantly enhance our ability to identify new human antibody drug candidates."

"We are extremely pleased and excited to license the T7Select System to Alexion for their human therapeutic antibody program," stated Dr. Robert Mierendorf, President of Novagen. "As a supplier of products for basic research it is gratifying to see this technology find such important applications in drug discovery. We hope that Alexion's efforts in using the T7Select System will result in novel therapeutics for a variety of diseases."

The T7Select System is extremely powerful and offers several advantages over other in vitro antibody display systems. The T7 bacteriophage is very simple to propagate and due to its rapid growth, is well suited for display systems requiring multiple rounds of selection. T7 is extremely stable in a variety of agents, allowing a wide range of conditions to be employed during the biopanning procedure. T7 entirely assembles in the bacterial cytoplasm, eliminating the need for antibody secretion. This property distinguishes T7 from the more common filamentous bacteriophage display systems both functionally and from an intellectual property point of view.

"The T7Select System adds to our arsenal of proprietary antibody discovery tools," said Dr. Kathy Bowdish, President of Alexion Antibody Technologies, Inc. "Though the power and utility of the T7Select System for antibody discovery has yet to be fully recognized, it will likely be an appropriate format for the discovery and optimization of new therapeutic antibody candidates." Dr. Russell Rother, Senior Director of Discovery Research at Alexion, added, "We are pleased to add the T7Select System to our antibody discovery platform. Working with the scientific team at Novagen, we have already demonstrated the potential utility of this system to express and display a diverse library of a billion recombinant human antibodies."

Novagen, a brand of CN Biosciences, an affiliate of Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany), provides innovative molecular biology products to the worldwide scientific research community.

Alexion is engaged in the discovery and development of therapeutic products aimed at treating patients with a wide array of severe disease states, including cardiovascular and autoimmune disorders, inflammation and cancer. Alexion's two lead product candidates, pexelizumab and 5G1.1, are currently in eight clinical development programs. Alexion is developing pexelizumab, an antibody fragment, in collaboration with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. Together the firms have completed a Phase IIb clinical study with pexelizumab in cardiopulmonary bypass patients, and are currently conducting two large Phase II studies with pexelizumab in acute myocardial infarction patients. Alexion's other lead product candidate, 5G1.1, has completed a Phase II trial for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. 5G1.1 is also in Phase II trials for the treatment of membranous nephritis and for lupus nephritis, and in earlier stage clinical trials for the treatment of dermatomyositis and pemphig! oid. Additionally, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Alexion Antibody Technologies, Inc., Alexion is engaged in discovering and developing a portfolio of additional antibody therapeutics targeting severe unmet medical needs.