Wyeth enters new deal for monoclonal antibody products

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has entered into a collaboration agreement with privately held firm Raven biotechnologies for the development and commercialisation of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) selected from that company’s antibody portfolio.

Financial terms of the agreement, including licensing fees, milestone payments and sales royalties, have not been disclosed by the companies. Under the terms of the agreement, Wyeth will have an option on the exclusive rights of treatments deriving from this research.

The relevant antibodies to the partnership agreement have been discovered by Raven using its tumour-derived stem-cell lines and immunisation technology.

Raven is a company that develops MAb treatments for use in oncology. RAV12, its lead drug candidate currently in clinical development is used to target adenocarcinomas in the treatment of gastrointestinal and other cancers.

George F Schreiner, chief executive officer of Raven, commented that the company was “pleased” to collaborate with Wyeth, stating that the partnership validated the company’s pharmaceutical approach.

“Raven proprietary antibody discovery processes rapidly create [MAbs] and allow researchers to quickly assess the importance of those proteins in the disease process,” he said.

Earlier this week, chairman and chief executive officer of Wyeth, Robert Essner, presented the company at the Morgan Stanley Pharmaceutical Chief Executive Officer Unplugged Conference.