Celera Genomics and Medarex collaborate on oncology antibodies

The collaboration will encompass the development of therapeutic antibodies against proteins identified by Celera’s proteomic research discovery efforts as being over-expressed on the surface of tumor cells and subsequently validated through additional research at Celera.

The collaboration combines Celera’s ability to discover and validate novel targets for oncology with Medarex’s expertise in the development of fully human antibody therapeutics.

Celera and Medarex plan to jointly select targets from Celera’s portfolio of novel cancer targets. Medarex expects to generate fully human monoclonal antibodies against these targets using its proprietary UltiMAb human antibody development system, and the two companies expect to jointly carry out initial validation studies.

The two companies plan to alternate the selection of antigen-antibody research programs to further develop and commercialize the antibodies independently. The selecting party will have full development and commercialization rights to products arising from its selected research programs, and the other party will be entitled to receive milestone payments if milestones are achieved and royalties on commercial sales of any such products. Other financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“We are pleased with this new collaboration with Medarex as it combines the strength of our novel target discovery and validation with their expertise as a leader in developing human antibody therapeutics,” said Kathy Ordonez, president of Celera.