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Corixa,
Kirin to tie up on antibodies
BridgeNews
- New York
CORIXA
corporation, a developer of immunotherapeutics, and Kirin Brewery
CO, Ltd, reached an agreement to discover and develop fully human
monoclonal antibodies directed against targets from Corixa’s
extensive library of autoimmune disease, cancer and infectious disease
antigens.
Kirin will contribute its new TC Mouse technology, including the
KM Mouse, a new crossbred mouse developed by Kirin and Medarex,
Inc, to the multi-year agreement that’s designed to generate,
screen and characterise fully human monoclonal antibodies directed
against Corixa’s antigens.
Corixa has option rights to exclusively develop and commercialise
antibodies created using the TC Mouse and KM Mouse. In return, Kirin
will receive license fees and payments on achievement of certain
milestones and royalties on product sales.
Further details of the agreement were not disclosed by either company.
Kirin’s TC Mouse is a transchromosomic mouse system that is
genetically engineered to contain 100 per cent of the human genes
for making antibodies.
In the TC Mouse, the mouse genes relating to antibodies have been
functionally replaced by the entire human chromosomal loci responsible
for making human antibodies. Fully human monoclonal antibodies are
desirable because they avoid the risk of rejection present with
mouse or part mouse monoclonal antibodies. ‘‘Our collaboration
with Kirin represents another opportunity for Corixa to extend the
reach of our expansive technology base,’’ said Steven
Gillis, Ph D, chairman and chief executive officer at Corixa.
‘‘This
partnership expands our ability to generate human antibodies, speeding
up the development of new product candidates Powered by Corixa.
We are very excited by this opportunity to provide our TC Mouse
technology to Corixa,’’ said Katsuhiko Asano, Ph D, president
of Kirin’s Pharmaceutical Division.
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