OBT licenses cancer antibody to sanofi-aventis

Published: 25-Jan-2011

Sanofi will develop antibody drug conjugate cancer treatments


Sanofi-Aventis has acquired an exclusive worldwide licence to one of Oxford BioTherapeutics’ (OBT) preclinical antibody programmes.

The French drugmaker will use the antibody, which is directed against a novel, proprietary target identified by Oxford, UK-based OBT, to develop antibody drug conjugate (ADC) products for the treatment of cancer. ADC products comprise toxins attached to antibodies, which form effective therapeutic products that attack tumour cells in a highly targeted manner.

Under the terms of the agreement, sanofi-aventis has agreed to pay OBT an undisclosed upfront cash payment. OBT is also eligible for development and regulatory milestone payments, royalties on sales and will receive additional performance milestones.

‘This is the most advanced antibody licensing deal that OBT has signed to date and I am delighted that the target and antibody capabilities that we have built have been recognised by a world-leading pharmaceutical company such as sanofi-aventis,’ said Christian Rohlff, ceo of OBT.

A key component of OBT’s expertise in cancer target and antibody discovery is its Oxford Genome Anatomy Project (OGAP) proteomic database, one of the world’s largest proprietary human cancer cell-surface protein repositories, combined with genomic and clinical information derived from human blood and cancer tissue studies.

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