Oss, The Netherlands, and London, UK, 25th July, 2007 – Organon, the human healthcare business unit of Akzo Nobel, together with MRC Technology (London, UK) announced today that they have signed a collaborative agreement to develop a humanised antibody for the treatment of certain forms of cancer. The Therapeutic Antibody Group (TAG) at MRCT will use its proprietary CDR grafting technology to generate a humanised clinical candidate from a murine antibody discovered at Organon’s Research Center in Cambridge, MA,. Organon will pay MRCT research and development milestones, and royalties on net sales that may result from the commercialization of any antibody products. Organon will retain all development and commercialization rights. Additional financial terms were not disclosed.
TAG has a proven track record of success in antibody humanisation which extends over 18 years and encompasses around 30 successfully humanised antibodies,” said Dr. Tarran Jones, Director of TAG. “Eight of these humanised antibodies have progressed to the clinic and two, Elan/Biogen Idec’s Tysabri® and Chugai/Roche’s Actemra®, have gone on to achieve market approval. We are looking forward to applying our expertise in collaboration with Organon to humanise their monoclonal antibody which addresses such an important disease area.”
“Organon has been stepping up its efforts to discover and develop novel biotherapeutics for oncology and auto-immune disorders. The collaboration with MRCT on its well-validated antibody humanisation technology is a further step towards becoming effective biotherapeutic drug hunters,” said David Nicholson, EVP of R&D at Organon.