Amgen and OGeS sign cancer Ab development deal

UK-based Oxford Genome Sciences has entered into a strategic collaboration with US biotechnology giant Amgen to discover, develop and commercialize novel therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer. The UK firm said that the deal, financial terms of which were not disclosed, will further strengthen its Ab pipeline and make best use of its unique OGAP cancer protein database.

During the collaboration, the firms will jointly discover candidate Abs using the XenoMouse technology that Amgen acquired through its $2.2 billion purchase of Abgenix last year (Marketletter April 10, 2006). OGeS' role will be to provide novel druggable targets to which Abs can be raised and to conduct preclinical assessment of each candidate. The agreement covers up to six oncology programs, and provides Amgen with an option to select three of these for further development.