COPENHAGEN, Denmark and EMERYVILLE, CA – Symphogen A/S and Origen Therapeutics today announced a strategic collaboration to develop a transgenic chicken capable of producing human antibodies against a wide variety of disease targets. Origen will use its avian transgenic technology to develop transgenic chickens, which can be immunized with any disease target of interest, including diseases such as cancer, and autoimmunity. Symphogen will apply its antibody discovery and expression platforms to create novel recombinant fully human monoclonal and polyclonal antibody therapeutics against such targets. Both companies plan to employ the jointly developed transgenic technology to produce novel antibody therapeutics.
“Symphogen’s Symplex™ technology is an extremely powerful platform for direct isolation of potent, fully human antibody drug lead candidates against exogenous targets, for example such as those for infectious diseases,”
said Kirsten Drejer, Ph.D., CEO of Symphogen.
“The transgenic chicken to be developed by Origen will complement our existing discovery platform and provide us with the strategic freedom to develop recombinant fully human antibodies against any disease of interest, including cancer and autoimmune diseases, for our own product pipeline or together with our partners.”
“We are very pleased to form this collaboration with Symphogen, a company with outstanding technical capabilities and a similar vision to our own about the direction of next generation of antibody therapeutics,”
said Robert Kay, Ph.D., President and CEO of Origen Therapeutics.
“We both believe the future lies in the use of multiple antibodies against a disease target, rather than the single monoclonal antibody approach, to achieve a more potent therapeutic effect with fewer side effects. Origen’s avian transgenic technology provides the means to reach that goal. Together, we will develop transgenic chickens capable of producing a repertoire of human sequence antibodies in response to immunization with specific disease antigens, and create complex antibody-based therapeutics against a wide range of diseases.”
Under the terms of the agreement, both companies will provide funding for the development of transgenic, human antibody-expressing chickens using Origen’s avian transgenic technology. Origen will receive upfront license payments and further payments upon reaching defined research and development goals. In addition, Symphogen and Origen will pay each other royalties on products arising from the technology. Once human antibody-producing chickens are developed, both companies will hold rights to develop products from those birds. Furthermore, Symphogen will have the right to purchase exclusive access to the collaboration technology for use to generate human recombinant antibody products. The two companies plan to address targets in the areas of infectious disease, cancer and autoimmune diseases.
About Origen Therapeutics
Origen Therapeutics, headquartered in Emeryville, CA, is a privately held biotechnology company developing product opportunities from their avian transgenic platform. The company’s mission is to become a leading developer and producer of complex recombinant protein therapeutics, including next-generation human antibody therapeutics. Origen is establishing global corporate alliances with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for the commercialization of its technology.
About Symphogen
Symphogen is the leader in developing recombinant polyclonal antibodies (pAb), a new class of biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of serious human diseases. By employing its pioneering antibody discovery and manufacturing technologies, Symphogen generates recombinant antibody compositions that capture the diversity and effectiveness of the natural immune system. Symphogen is building a proprietary product pipeline within several disease areas, including infectious diseases and cancer. Symphogen is a private biopharmaceutical company with more than 70 employees, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.