Kalgene Signs Commercial Agreement With Affomix

Kalgene Pharmaceuticals (Kalgene) has signed a commercial agreement to have Affomix utilise its Y2HExpress technology to select antibodies with potential diagnostic and therapeutic utility in breast cancer.

As per the agreement, Affomix is expected to generate antibodies against several proprietary targets selected by Kalgene. Affomix will utilise its Y2HExpress technology for the selection of single-chain antibodies with substantially increased throughput, and specificity, over conventional Y2H and alternative antibody selection methodologies.

Reportedly, the financial terms of the service agreement were not disclosed, nor were the financial milestones related to diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Nathan Yoganathan, president and CEO of Kalgene, said: “After much diligence, Kalgene chose Affomix as the company to rapidly procure antibodies against our proprietary targets. Y2HExpress has the ability to select antibodies at an unprecedented level of specificity, combined with very favorable financial advantages.”

Michael Sherman, president of Affomix, said: “Our automated high-throughput procedures allow us to quickly identify highly specific antibodies against predetermined regions of target proteins. These antibodies are well suited for experimental use while serving as ideal starting points for development of diagnostic and therapeutic agents.”