Ligand announces OmniAb partnership with Genagon Therapeutics

Under the terms of the partnership, Genagon gains access to the full OmniAb platform including OmniRat, OmniMous, OmniFlic and OmniChicken in their drug discovery efforts.

Ligand received an upfront payment and is eligible to receive development milestone payments and tiered royalties for each product incorporating an OmniAb-derived antibody. Genagon will be responsible for costs related to their programs.

“This agreement gives Genagon access to an industry-leading antibody discovery technology and the only platform to offer access to three species that produce fully-human antibodies. Genagon is focused on the immuno-oncology space, a promising area of current scientific research, and we are glad to welcome them as a partner”, said John Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand.

“The OmniAb platform is innovative and it has proven itself to be a broadly-licensable technology that we will continue to leverage as we build our Shots-on-Goal business model.”

“We are very happy to partner with Ligand in gaining access to the OmniAb platform for developing ground-breaking antibody based therapeutics for immuno-oncology targeting novel suppressive pathways on antigen presenting cells discovered at Genagon,” states Simon Fredriksson, Chief Executive Officer of Genagon.

Genagon Therapeutics has developed a platform for identifying novel pathways in immune cells and discovered new mechanisms of inhibition of innate immunity by cancer cells. Active innate immune cells are essential in order to recruit and activate cancer specific T-cells to eliminate their target cells.

OmniAb is a three-species transgenic-animal platform consisting of four different technologies used for producing mono- and bispecific human therapeutic antibodies. OmniRat^® is the industry’s first human monoclonal antibody technology based on rats.

Because they have a complete immune system with a diverse antibody repertoire, OmniRat animals generate antibodies with human idiotypes as effectively as wild-type animals make rat antibodies. OmniMouse is a transgenic mouse that complements OmniRat and expands epitope coverage.

OmniFlic is an engineered rat with a fixed light chain for development of bispecific, fully human antibodies. OmniChicken is the industry’s first human monoclonal antibody technology based on chickens. The four technologies use patented technology, have broad freedom to operate and deliver fully human antibodies with high affinity, specificity, expression, solubility and stability.

Source: Company Press Release