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Positive Results Using Affitech-Identified Human Antibody That Blocks VEGF Binding to VEGF Receptor 2 in Preclinical Cancer Model Reported By Peregrine

Posted on: Monday, 23 April 2007, 06:01 CDT

Affitech AS, the human antibody therapeutics company announced today that Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. reported positive in vivo test results of R3, a fully human monoclonal antibody developed by Affitech, in a pancreatic cancer model at the recently concluded Centennial Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). R3 has been designed by the two companies for selective blocking of VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) binding to VEGF receptor 2, as opposed to other anti-angiogenic agents which block activity of both VEGF receptors.

The R3 antibody, which was generated by Affitech's phagemid antibody library screening method, when tested by Peregrine on a pancreatic cancer model, showed significant reduction of the growth, vascularization and macrophage infiltration of pancreatic tumors in mice. This is the first antibody from Affitech's library that has been tested in a preclinical development model. Peregrine announced that the positive results of R3 antibody support the Company's intent to progress its anti-VEGF program towards clinical trials.

"We are delighted with this in vivo result, " commented Martin Welschof, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Affitech. "Affitech and Peregrine have several collaborative antibody projects. The quality of the antibody and excellent collaborative research by the scientists of our two organizations are contributing to advancing Peregrine's anti-VEGF portfolio. This success also has important implications for accelerating our own human therapeutic antibody program "

Editors notes

Affitech AS is a privately held human therapeutic antibody discovery and development company with headquarters and R&D facilities in Oslo, Norway and its US subsidiary in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Company's current disease focus is oncology and it utilizes two discrete but unique approaches for the discovery of fully human antibodies - (i) Molecule Based Antibody Discovery, and (ii) Cell Based Antibody Discovery. Molecule Based Antibody Discovery involves proprietary PhagemidScreeN and AffiScreeN™ technologies and uses validated targets for discovery purpose. Cell Based Antibody Discovery is based on CBAS™ technology, which is a "reverse-screening" approach for discovering antibodies and their cognate targets utilizing disease-specific cells. Several of the Company's proprietary product candidates currently in development were generated by CBAS™. Affitech also sells its proprietary Protein L product line for the purification of antibody and antibody fragments. Affitech offers collaborators a flexible business model and very competitive price structure with low royalty stacking. The Company has concluded deals with commercial organizations such as Peregrine, XOMA, NatImmune, Viventia, Dyax, Micromet, Pharmexa and others. Further information at www.affitech.com.

Source: Business Wire

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