OGeS enters cancer drug accord with Medarex

UK-based Oxford Genome Sciences (OGeS) and US drugmaker Medarex have entered into a strategic collaboration to discover and develop new human antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancers, including colorectal cancer.

The collaboration combines OGeS' ability to discover novel targets for oncology with Medarex' expertise in the development of fully-human antibody therapeutics and provides for the companies to discover, develop and commercialize therapeutic antibodies on a 50:50 basis. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

During the initial phase of the collaboration, OGeS intends to provide novel colorectal cancer targets, against which Medarex expects to generate fully-human monoclonal antibodies using its proprietary UltiMAb Human Antibody Development System. As part of the research accord, OGeS plans to utilize its unique Oxford Genome Anatomy Project database, one of the world's largest human protein databases that integrates genomic, proteomic and clinical information derived from blood and tissue studies for a large number of diseases from 50 different human tissues and representing 60 diseases.