Breda, the Netherlands, 28 May 2014 – arGEN-X, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating and developing differentiated therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer and severe autoimmune diseases, announced today the initiation of a collaboration with Bayer Pharma AG (Bayer), leveraging arGEN-X’s SIMPLE Antibody™ technology for the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies. The collaboration centers on a novel approach to addressing complex targets across multiple therapeutic areas that are often intractable by existing antibody platforms.
“We are delighted that Bayer, with its long-standing expertise in drug development, will make use of the SIMPLE Antibody™ platform. As a company, we are dedicated to forming elite partnerships and feel that with this new collaboration, we have firmly established SIMPLE Antibody™ as an innovative solution to reaching intractable targets and tackling unmet needs in antibody discovery,” said Tim Van Hauwermeiren, Chief Executive Officer of arGEN-X. “We are confident that by building on our proprietary capabilities in DNA immunization and the unique immune system of the llama, we have developed a novel platform that will create potential new product opportunities.”
With this collaboration, arGEN-X will apply its SIMPLE Antibody™ technology to multiple targets submitted by Bayer. The parties will work together to validate human antibody leads in disease-relevant models, with Bayer being responsible for further preclinical and clinical development and commercialization of therapeutic antibody products. Under the terms of the Agreement, Bayer will pay arGEN-X an upfront technology access fee, research support and technical success-based milestones. Bayer will also pay clinical, regulatory and product sales-based milestones as antibody programs progress through clinical development and registration.
“We look forward to collaborating with arGEN-X and exploring the potential of SIMPLE Antibody™ technology to complement Bayer‘s efforts in the discovery and development of first-in-class therapeutic antibodies,” said Dr. Harald Dinter, Head of Global Biologics at Bayer Pharma AG.
About arGEN-X
arGEN-X is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating and developing differentiated therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer and severe autoimmune diseases. arGEN-X has generated a clinical pipeline of differentiated antibody candidates using its SIMPLE Antibody™ discovery platform. SIMPLE Antibody™ has a particular strength in addressing novel, complex disease targets that are difficult to access using established antibody technology platforms. Fc engineering technologies – NHance®, ABDEG™ and POTELLIGENT® – further enhance the therapeutic properties of SIMPLE Antibody™ leads in terms of their residence time in the body, their ability to clear disease targets or pathogenic antibodies and their cell killing potency through Antibody-Dependent Cell-mediated Cytotoxicity (ADCC), respectively. arGEN-X has leveraged its suite of antibody technologies in forging strategic collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to provide new approaches to diseases with unmet medical needs.