Oxford BioMedica, a gene therapy company, has announced progress in the programme of its collaborative partner Viragen
Viragen, in collaboration with the Roslin Institute, is developing avian transgenic biomanufacturing for the purpose of using chickens as bioreactors for the efficient and economical production of human pharmaceutical protein-based drugs in their eggs.
Viragen reported that an antibody designed to treat malignant melanoma (anti-GD3 antibody) has been successfully detected in the blood of a founder transgenic rooster after the antibody was introduced using Oxford BioMedica's proprietary LentiVector gene delivery system.
This achievement is the first in a series of steps designed to confirm that a humanised antibody can be produced in subsequent generations of chickens and demonstrate a fully intact structure capable of its intended therapeutic function.
Project Leader, Roslin's Helen Sang, explained: "We have previously demonstrated that a reporter gene can be synthesised in the oviduct of laying hens, the source of egg white proteins.
"The significance of this new milestone is that we are now using a humanised anti-cancer antibody which has been incorporated into the bird's DNA".
Sang also discussed the project's goal to demonstrate tissue-specific expression in the oviduct: "We have now shown that a protein can be synthesised in the oviduct of transgenic hens, the source of egg white proteins".
"These results indicate that we are well advanced towards our stated target of tissue-specific expression of a therapeutic protein - a key milestone in our development plan".
"These collective results are extremely encouraging and give us good reason to believe that additional important milestones could be reported in the coming months," stated Viragen's president and CEO, Charles Rice.
"We are developing similar work utilising a second therapeutic protein which has global sales of approximately $2 billion.
"As we continue to realise these significant milestone events, the time is approaching for scheduling meetings with the appropriate international regulatory agencies, including the FDA, to determine the steps that will be required to bring this exciting technology to the market".
In other avian transgenic-related news, it was announced that a scientific article has been published in Drug Discovery Today (Volume 10, Number 3, February 2005).
The article, titled 'Transgenic chickens as bioreactors for protein-based drugs', reports on significant advances to develop avian transgenics.
Co-authored by Helen Sang, the article concludes that: "Recent improvements of transgenic technology for chickens and preliminary results on protein expression in birds are encouraging."
