Dec 11, 2014: arGEN-X Announces Advancement of Therapeutic Antibody Alliance with Shire
Shire to take one or more collaborative product candidates into preclinical development
Breda, the Netherlands / Ghent, Belgium – arGEN-X N.V. (Euronext Brussels: ARGX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating and developing differentiated therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer and severe autoimmune diseases, today announced that its partner Shire has exercised its option to advance into preclinical development one or more product candidates created out of a 2012 therapeutic antibody alliance between the two companies. As a result of the exercise, arGEN-X will receive a milestone payment from Shire.
Under the terms of the 2012 alliance, Shire was given the option to license promising leads of human antibody candidates identified and characterized by arGEN-X using the SIMPLE Antibody™ Platform. These therapeutic leads were based on targets provided to arGEN-X by Shire that are known to contribute to the pathophysiology of severe, rare genetic diseases.
“We are very pleased with Shire’s decision to exercise its option to further develop product candidates that came out of our initial discovery deal. We believe this decision is a reflection of the strength of our technology platform and its ability to deliver viable therapeutic candidates that reach disease targets previously considered inaccessible,” said Tim Van Hauwermeiren, CEO of arGEN-X. “We look forward to our continued work with Shire through the ongoing development and potential commercialization of product candidates born out of our therapeutic antibody alliance but also through our more recently established long-term strategic alliance.”
“The success of our therapeutic antibody collaboration with arGEN-X has led us to exercise our first option to a commercial license,” said Albert Seymour, Head of Research and Non-Clinical Development at Shire.
In June 2014, arGEN-X and Shire entered into a long-term strategic alliance which expanded upon the initial collaboration to include the use of the entire suite of arGEN-X human antibody discovery technologies.