Symphogen and Meiji advance Sym006 into preclinical testing

Denmark's Symphogen and Japan-based Meiji Seika Kaisha have announced the advancement of their collaboration for the discovery, development and commercialization of a recombinant polyclonal antibody therapeutic, Sym006, that targets an undisclosed bacterial pathogen. The companies, which initiated the collaboration in December 2006, are moving the program into preclinical development. As a result, Symphogen will receive a milestone payment from Meiji.

"We are pleased to move our Sym006 partnership with Meiji forward into preclinical development, after achieving proof-of-concept for our recombinant polyclonal antibody therapeutic in relevant animal models," said Kirsten Drejer, chief executive of Symphogen. "This is an important validation of our antibody discovery technology, Symplex, which Meiji used to identify a broad representation of antibodies from naturally immune human donors. Meiji will continue development of Sym006 using Symphogen's Sympress technology for the manufacture and characterization of this recombinant polyclonal antibody product," she added.

Under the terms of the original deal, Symphogen received an initial technology access fee from Meiji and is eligible for development milestones, as well as royalties on worldwide net sales from any successful products. Meiji has agreed to fund the development costs associated with the program. Symphogen has retained an option to enter into a 50/50 profit share and co-development collaboration with Meiji in the USA and European markets upon completion of the first Phase II clinical trial.