Cancer Research Tech licenses antibodies to Peptech

The UK's Cancer Research Technology says it has licensed rights to a panel of cancer therapeutic antibodies to Peptech, granting it exclusive worldwide rights tothe agentss for therapeutic, vaccine and in vitro diagnostic use.

The antibodies were originally licensed by CRT to UK biotechnology company Scancell, which selected two preclinical leads, SC101 and SC104 for development in colorectal cancer. Peptech has acquired the entire panel of cancer therapeutic antibodies and the intellectual property relating to these programs from both Scancell and CRT. Scancell is now using the revenue to progress its novel cancer vaccine platform that it co-developed with CRT.

The panel of antibodies was originally developed by Cancer Research UK-funded studies led by Lindy Durrant, a professor at the University of Nottingham and targets antigens that are over-expressed on a variety of tumors. SC101 is a mouse monoclonal antibody recognizing Lewis y/b. Unlike other known Lewis y/b antibodies, SC101 binds to both haptens on a range of solid tumors and, unusually, does not bind to normal gastrointestinal tract. The antibody has been shown to induce death in tumor cells that over-express Lewis y/b without the need of immune effector cells in vitro.