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Scancell Signs New Agreement with
Biovation to DeImmunise SC101
Nottingham UK – January 11th 2005 –
Scancell Ltd, the Nottingham-based cancer therapeutics company, has announced
that it has secured an agreement with Biovation under which Biovation will apply
their DeImmunisation technology to up to two further monoclonal antibodies (MAbs)
in Scancell’s portfolio, including SC101, Scancell’s anti-cancer MAb against
Lewis y/b.
Lewisy/b is a cell surface carbohydrate blood group antigen whose expression is
very low in normal tissue but over-expressed on breast, lung, colon and ovarian
cancer cells. Mouse antibodies recognising Lewisy/b have induced tumour cell
death and inhibited growth of various tumour lines. In animal studies, tumour
growth was inhibited by anti-Lewisy/b antibodies alone, and especially when
combined with 5-fluorouracil, an antimetabolite that disrupts cancer cell
growth.
The DeImmunisation™ technology identifies and removes T-cell epitopes from the
therapeutic antibody, which substantially reduces its immunogenicity. Since
potentially immunogenic regions of the antibody are removed by single amino acid
substitutions, immunogenicity can be eliminated while retaining the biological
properties of the starting molecule.
Commenting on the agreement, Professor Lindy Durrant, CSO of Scancell, said:
"We are very pleased to be working with Biovation once again. This agreement
offers Scancell the opportunity to DeImmunise a further two antibody
therapeutics, a vital step in preparing these products for clinical trials.”
Dr. Frank Carr, President and Chief Executive Officer at Biovation, commented:
"We are delighted to be working with and supporting Scancell in their efforts to
develop exciting and innovative anti-cancer therapeutics for the clinic”
Notes to Editors
About Scancell:
Scancell Ltd is a company focussed on the discovery and development of products
that harness the immune system in a unique way to treat or prevent cancer.
Founded in 1996 as a spin-out from Nottingham University, Scancell in based in
state-of-the-art facilities at the BioCity innovation and technology centre,
Nottingham. The Company, which currently employs 15 individuals, has secured
£3.7million of private equity and commercial funding. Scancell has four
monoclonal antibody products in active development and has also developed its
patent protected ImmunoBody™ technology for the discovery of improved cancer
vaccines. For more information about Scancell visit www.scancell.co.uk
About Biovation:
Biovation is a UK-based antibody and protein company with a proprietary
technology, DeImmunisation™, designed to genetically engineer antibodies and
other proteins for administration to humans without immunogenicity. All
biologics, even fully-human antibodies and human-derived proteins, can
potentially cause an adverse immune response when administered to patients.
DeImmunisation™ provides a means for re-engineering these molecules to eliminate
this risk and generate biologics suitable for multiple dose, chronic
administration. Biovation has successfully applied DeImmunisation™ to a variety
of antibody and protein products, principally through partnerships with
biopharmaceutical companies worldwide. (www.biovation.com)
Legal Disclaimer
Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in
this press release are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by
such statements, e.g. unforeseen exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations,
delayed or unsuccessful development projects.
Statements that are not historical facts, including statements preceded by,
followed by, or that include the words "believes"; "anticipates"; "plans";
"expects"; "estimates"; or similar statements are forward-looking statements.
Scancell is not under an obligation to up-date statements regarding the future
following the publication of this release; nor to confirm such statements in
relation to actual results, unless this is required by law.
For further enquiries:
Northbank Communications Ltd
Dr Douglas Pretsell or Sue Charles
Tel: +44 (0)20 7886 8150
d.pretsell@northbankcommunications.com
s.charles@northbankcommunications.com
Scancell Ltd
Mike Capaldi, CEO
Tel: 44 (0)115 912 4315
michaelcapaldi@scancell.co.uk
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