Oxford BioMedica and Arius Research of Canada announced in July 2002 a research and development collaboration to search for targets and develop novel products to treat cancer
Under the collaboration Arius will supply BioMedica with a range of 50 functional anti-tumour antibodies that it has identified using a unique novel approach.
BioMedica will characterise the antibodies and identify the cognate antigens by employing a range of proprietary technologies from its gene discovery and immunotherapy programmes.
The antigens and antibodies will be developed for use in immunotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of cancer.
New products, such as vaccines or therapeutic antibodies, will be developed by the two companies or in conjunction with pharmaceutical partners.
The appetite within the pharmaceutical industry for cancer therapies that make use of tumour specific antibodies or vaccines is increasing substantially.
It has been estimated that the therapeutic antibody market alone will have grown to $4 billion by the end of 2002 and is set to rise steadily over the next ten years.
BioMedica is already a significant player in this field with its $24 million antibody deal with Wyeth and its very successful clinical trial results with the company's proprietary therapeutic vaccine TroVax.
BioMedica has both the technical skills to develop these products and the business development experience to market them to larger pharmaceutical companies.
If successful, TroVax could reach the market in 4-5 years with sales exceeding $1 billion.
Similarly, the Wyeth collaboration could yield a product of similar significance within a comparable time frame.
The new collaboration between BioMedica and Arius is designed to provide a pipeline of cancer immunotherapy products that will be marketed jointly to the industry once proof of principle is established.
The first output from the collaboration is expected within a year.
Commenting on the collaboration, BioMedica's chief executive, professor Alan Kingsman said: "This is a excellent opportunity for Oxford BioMedica.
"The collaboration with Arius offers the unique ability to generate novel cancer immunotherapy products by utilising our in-house immunology and gene discovery platforms alongside Arius's novel technology for discovering functional antibodies".
Commenting on the collaboration Arius's chief executive, David Young, said: "Arius is delighted at the prospect of a collaborative development with Oxford BioMedica as one that will add value to our core expertise in functional antibody generation by characterising the target antigens."
