SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Raven biotechnologies, inc., a privately held company focused on the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics (MAbs) for treating cancer, today announced it had entered into an agreement with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth , to develop and commercialize selected MAbs from Raven’s portfolio of antibodies to a specified target.
The agreement gives Wyeth the option to obtain an exclusive license to develop and commercialize therapies arising from the use of these designated Raven antibodies. Terms of the agreement, which include an upfront payment, milestone payments and royalties based upon the net sales of products developed from the Raven technology, were not disclosed.
The antibodies included in the agreement were discovered using Raven proprietary immunization technology and tumor-derived stem-cell lines, and were screened to select antibodies that are active alone or in a conjugated form.
“We are pleased to partner with Wyeth and believe this agreement further validates our approach,” said George F. Schreiner, M.D., Ph.D., Raven’s Chief Executive Officer. “Raven proprietary antibody discovery processes rapidly create monoclonal antibodies and allow researchers to quickly assess the importance of those proteins in the disease process.”
About Raven
Raven biotechnologies, inc. (www.ravenbio.com ) is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics for treating cancer. Raven’s lead product candidate, RAV12, targets adenocarcinomas and is in clinical development for the treatment of gastrointestinal and other cancers. Raven discovery processes simultaneously identify cell-surface drug targets and the antibody therapeutics to regulate them. The company’s focus on biological function allows it to rapidly identify novel target antigens and therapeutic candidates as well as unique antibodies to known targets in their native configuration on the intact cell membrane. The Raven integrated approach is based on proprietary methods for optimizing the production of MAbs targeting cell-surface proteins, including the use of human tissue-specific progenitor and tumor stem-cell lines developed at Raven.
To date, Raven has identified multiple candidate therapeutic MAbs for many cancer indications including lung, colon, pancreatic, prostate, breast, brain, and ovarian cancer.
Raven biotechnologies, inc.
CONTACT: Stephen Worsley, Vice President, Business Development, of RavenBiotechnologies, inc., +1-650-624-2662, or sworsley@ravenbio.com; or DarylMessinger of WeissComm Partners, +1-415-946-1062, ordaryl@weisscommpartners.com, for Raven biotechnologies, inc.
Web site: http://www.ravenbio.com/
