Affitech to help new Norwegian Cancer Stem Cell Center speed up biomarker discovery

CBAS™ platform key to rapid biomarker discovery

OSLO, NORWAY, April 15 2008, Affitech AS, the Norwegian human antibody therapeutics company, announced today its membership in the newly inaugurated Norwegian Center for Stem Cell Based Tumor Therapy (CAST). In the frame of this participation, Affitech will use its proprietary CBAS™ (Cell Based Antibody Selection) platform to identify molecules of clinical interest. CBAS™ is a reverse screening approach which utilizes both patient-derived and naïve antibody libraries to rapidly generate fully human antibodies and their cognate antigens when present in their natural setup.

The CAST program, which has its origin in the stem cell research activities at Oslo University and the combined Rikshospitalt/Radiumhospital, has the status of a Center of Research Based Innovation (CRI) and has been granted financial support from The Norwegian Research Council. In addition, Oslo-based Ullevål Hospital and the University of Oslo are partners in the consortium, along with leading Norwegian diagnostic and biopharmaceutical companies. The center is being coordinated by professors Stefan Krauss and Ola Myklebost and it aims to foster closer cooperation between academic and industry researchers leading to the development of new methods and entities for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

According to Prof. Krauss, “Our work is based on the assumption that heterogeneity is a major issue in many tumors, and subpopulations of cancer cells with stem cell like features, termed as “cancer stem cells” can be central in the development of cancer. Traditional cancer therapies targeting fast dividing cells may miss cancer stem cells. Such surviving cancer stem cells are presumed to play a central role in tumor relapse. Development of specific therapeutic methods against those cancer stem cells will eliminate the basis for the establishment and relapse of tumors and could revolutionize cancer therapy. We are delighted to have Affitech as one of our partners and to be able to utilize CBAS™ for screening unique biomarkers (targets) and antibody binding to such targets both for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.”

Dr. Martin Welschof, CEO of Affitech, commented: “As specialists in oncology ourselves, we are delighted to participate in this new initiative based on the worldclass research being conducted within CAST. CBAS™ has already enabled us to generate our own exciting pipeline of oncology antibody candidates in record time and we anticipate it will have a similar impact on CAST’s activities.”

The first set of product candidates in the Affitech pipeline are fully human antibodies for cancer, at least one of which is expected to enter into clinical phase of development by 2009.

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Notes to editors:

About CBAS™

Cell-Based Antibody Selection is a proprietary method developed by Affitech for the rapid identification of highly specific antibodies towards epitopes on whole living cells. This technology enables the generation of fully human antibodies recognizing antigens in their proper "in vivo setup", i.e. native and in the correct biological appearance. Additional subtractive screening provides the possibility to search for cell type-/disease-specific cell surface markers. Both naive IgM-based as well as specific IgG-based antibody libraries can be used. An important in-built feature of the CBAS™ method is the possibility to identify previously unknown antigens plus specific antibodies recognizing them.

About Affitech

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 competitive price structure with low royalty stacking. The Company has concluded deals with commercial organizations such as Roche, Peregrine, XOMA, NatImmune, Viventia, Dyax, Micromet, Pharmexa and others. Further information at www.affitech.com
 
Affitech (Norway):                                     Media enquiries:
Dr. Martin Welschof                                 Richard Hayhurst
Chief Executive Officer                            Hayhurst Media
+47 22 95 87 58                                     +44 7711 821527
m.welschof@affitech.com                     richardh@hayhurstmedia.com