Affitech and Natimmune form colon cancer partnership

Affitech, of Oslo in Norway, and Danish biotechnology company Natimmune, of Copenhagen, have formed a partnership in the colon cancer area.

The collaboration aims to develop several antibody drug leads being generated by Affitech for therapy and in vivo diagnostics, against a clinically validated target proprietary to Natimmune.

Under the terms of the agreement, NatImmune will provide Affitech with access to the validated target originally discovered at Odense University in Denmark, and further characterised at The Scripps Research Institute in the US. The medical relevance and specificity of this target for adenocarcinomas, and colon cancer in particular, has already been documented in previous clinical trials with a low-affinity antibody.

Affitech will apply its high-quality antibody libraries and its proprietary discovery and screening technologies to generate a new panel of fully human antibodies against the target. Affitech and NatImmune will jointly develop antibody candidates on a shared cost - shared revenue basis.

'The colon cancer field is extremely interesting,' said Dr Ole Marvik, ceo of Affitech, 'and this target provided by NatImmune has already demonstrated its potential in the clinic.'

'The collaboration with Affitech will enable NatImmune to generate a range of high affinity fully human antibodies for an already validated target,' added Dr Per Fischer, ceo of Natimmune. 'We expect to see the first results of the collaboration in the form of a validated product lead by 2004.' NatImmune's lead compound, which was initially developed as an adjuvant for chemotherapy, will enter phase I clinical trials in 2003.