Tetragenetics, Inc. And Theranyx Partner For Discovery And Development Of Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies

French company joins argenx, Crystal Bioscience, and Sevion Therapeutics in partnership program

ARLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tetragenetics Inc., an emerging biotechnology company engaged in the expression of ion channel drug targets, announced today a new partnership with Theranyx, a French biotech company founded in 2010 that has a unique technology platform for the development of novel therapeutic solutions for the treatment of cancer.

“We have been developing the Therabody technology for several years. Now with this partnership, we will have access for the first time to large quantities of high quality ion channel proteins for immunization and screening of target therapeutics. We’re eager to get started on these exciting discovery programs.”

Tetragenetics partnership program is focused on the discovery and development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed against well-known ion channel drug targets implicated in a wide range of disease states –such as pain and autoimmune disorders. Founding partners participating in the program include: argenx, Crystal Bioscience and Sevion Therapeutics.

The program combines Tetragenetics’ unique and proprietary ion channel production capabilities with each partner’s novel antibody discovery platform. This approach incorporates phylogenetic diversity to ensure the highest probability of success and continues to allow Tetragenetics to develop its own pipeline of pre-clinical antibody assets.

Using Tetragenetics’ recombinant human ion channels for both immunization and mAb screening, the collaboration with Theranyx includes 4 research programs focused on individual ion channel targets. The program will begin immediately and is expected to produce initial results before year-end. Target proteins include Nav1.6, Kv10.1 and others.

Tetragenetics’ CEO Doug Kahn said, “We’re pleased Theranyx has joined our antibody partner program because they have novel technology with exciting potential for new drug discovery. The combination of our ion channels and their Therabody development platform is really quite powerful. Scientific data have shown that Therabodies have exceptional characteristics for binding and modulating the activity of membrane proteins such as ion channels so we have high expectations for this collaboration.”

Etienne L’Hermite, CEO of Theranyx added, “We have been developing the Therabody technology for several years. Now with this partnership, we will have access for the first time to large quantities of high quality ion channel proteins for immunization and screening of target therapeutics. We’re eager to get started on these exciting discovery programs.”

About Tetragenetics:
Tetragenetics has developed proprietary technology (TetraExpress™) that enables the rapid production of properly folded and functional ion channel proteins in membrane preparations and in purified form for use in antibody discovery and structure based drug design. The company uses these recombinant proteins to discover and develop new drugs for ion channel related autoimmune diseases and pain management. For more information, please visit: www.tetragenetics.com

About Theranyx:
Theranyx, based in Marseille (Fr), is a leading drug Discovery Company involved in the generation of functional antibody fragments, named Therabodies, targeting integral membrane receptors such as GPCRs and Ion Channels. Therabodies’ applications include target validation, diagnostics, therapeutic use and ADC. Theranyx business model includes both shared risk collaboration with biotech and pharma leaders and internal pipeline development on novel targets in cancer indications. For more information, please visit: www.theranyx.com