Medarex and Xerion in antibody collaboration
US biopharmaceutical company Medarex and Xerion Pharmaceuticals, of Munich in Germany, have entered into a collaborative agreement to develop fully human therapeutic antibody products.
US biopharmaceutical company Medarex and Xerion Pharmaceuticals, of Munich in Germany, have entered into a collaborative agreement to develop fully human therapeutic antibody products.
Under the terms of the agreement, Xerion plans to contribute disease associated targets identified through its Xstream technology, and Medarex expects to generate fully human antibody product candidates against these targets using its UltiMAb Human Antibody Development System. Both companies will share equally the costs and responsibilities of resulting product development and intend to jointly commercialise any antibody products emanating from this collaboration.
Xerion's Xstream technology works by selectively blocking the function of proteins in diseased cells thereby mimicking the activity of a drug. Xerion integrates this approach with the ability to rapidly generate therapeutic antibody leads.
'We believe that the combination of Xerion's Xstream platform and our UltiMAb technology has the potential to result in novel therapeutics, and we look forward to working with Xerion in this endeavor,' said Donald L. Drakeman, president and ceo of Medarex.