“Antibodies represent a very exciting class of biotherapeutics for Pfizer to combat infectious disease and are a proven approach to cancer treatment.”
Pfizer will pay Theraclone Sciences as much as $632 million in milestones during the course of a multi-year partnership in which the pair hope to find promising monoclonal antibodies to battle infectious disease and cancer.
Steven Gillis, Theraclone’s interim CEO and managing director of Arch Venture Partners, told The New York Times that 30 to 40 percent of the deal’s value, or $189 million to $252 million, is attached to milestones before mid-stage clinical trials.
“Antibodies represent a very exciting class of biotherapeutics for Pfizer to combat infectious disease and are a proven approach to cancer treatment,” says Jose-Carlos Gutiérrez-Ramos, Pfizer's SVP of worldwide biotherapeutics research and development.
Pfizer sees the potential to efficiently identify a new generation of improved therapeutic antibodies in Seattle-based Theraclone, says Gutiérrez-Ramos. Earlier in January, Pfizer said it would pay $8 million to use another monoclonal antibody-focused technology developed by Seattle Genetics for selectively delivering potent anti-cancer agents to tumor cells.
In its latest deal, Pfizer will use Theraclone’s I-STAR technology to screen and identify natural human antibodies and find those with exceptional biologic activity. The system has already helped identify unique and protective antibodies capable of protecting mice from highly lethal strains of influenza and other antibodies that have shown potential in protecting animal models from HIV.
Pfizer will receive exclusive worldwide license to any therapeutic antibodies discovered under the collaboration, while Theraclone stands to receive royalties on sales of any developed products.
January 19, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-pfizer_taps_theraclone_on_cancer_infectious_disease_rd.html