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news.Medicago and InterveXion Therapeutics have formed a multi-year product co-development collaboration, which will use Medicago's Proficia Protein Technology for the production of monoclonal antibodies therapeutics designed to treat drug abuse.
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InterveXion has received a $3 million grant to conduct clinical trials for the first antibody treatment for addiction to the drug phencyclidine, or PCP. The business development grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides funding for five years to obtain Food and Drug Administration approval and conduct clinical trials on a protein-based therapy intended to provide detoxification and protection from PCP abuse.
Medicago will receive milestone payments from InterveXion to produce the PCP antibody for the completion of necessary clinical trials. This agreement will be expanded later this year with the addition of another antibody. InterveXion will also follow the PCP therapy with a similar therapy for the much larger methamphetamine abuse market.
“We believe Medicago to be an ideal partner to rapidly develop our antibody. We expect a short clinical path due to proven safety of monoclonal antibody therapies and the unmet medical need for these treatments. We hope that working closely with FDA and NIDA we can formulate an accelerated clinical program to get the drug approved in three to four years,” said Dr Barry Holtz, president and CEO of InterveXion.