Syntarga BV Licenses Potent Cell-Killing Drugs From The University Of Göttingen, Germany
Nijmegen, The Netherlands – March 14, 2006 – Syntarga B.V. today announced that
it has signed a license agreement with the Georg-August University and Professor Lutz F.
Tietze in Göttingen, Germany to obtain rights to potent cell-killing drugs. MBM
ScienceBridge GmbH, the technology transfer organization of the University of Göttingen,
has been instrumental in negotiating the agreement. Under the agreement, Syntarga will
have exclusive, worldwide rights to manufacture, sublicense, and commercialize
conjugated products incorporating the highly active anti-cancer agents claimed by the
Georg-August University and Professor Tietze. Syntarga will incorporate the synthetic
drugs, members of the class of CC-1065 and the duocarmycins, in novel Antibody-Drug
Conjugates (ADCs) and other types of conjugates for the treatment of cancer. Using the
cutting edge linker technologies developed by Syntarga, highly potent cell-killing
compounds come within reach of becoming the basis for anti-tumor therapies. Using the
appropriate linker technology, the ADC approach exploits the tumor-targeting capability
of monoclonal antibodies to deliver these drugs specifically to the tumor site. As a
consequence, healthy cells are spared from their devastating effects, whereas cancer
cells are efficiently killed. Financial details of the agreement are not disclosed.