Lord Sainsbury ‘eyes up’ Haptogen and Invinity at BIO 2004

Fast-growing Scottish companies collaborate to accelerate discovery programmes..

Innovative antibody engineering specialists Haptogen (Aberdeen, Scotland) and Scottish biotech start-up of the year 2003, Invinity Bioscience (Edinburgh, Scotland), exhibited jointly at last week’s BIO 2004 in San Francisco. As Haptogen CEO Jim Reid explained to Lord Sainsbury during his visit to their booth, the directors view the close collaboration as bringing about enhanced capabilities in antibody development and expect it to lead to a strengthening and an acceleration of its drug development pipeline.

Haptogen’s unique technology and antibody engineering know-how, coupled with Invinity’s extensive experience developing productive cell lines, will allow rapid development of antibodies of any immunoglobulin class, ready for cGMP manufacture.

The teams at Haptogen and Invinity are actively seeking additional investors and are interested in forging rewarding partnerships in a wide range of therapeutic areas.

Currently, the companies’ most advanced development programs are concentrated on the discovery and development of human antibodies for use against infectious disease organisms - both bacteria and viruses. Compelling proof of principle data, together with positive results from initial pre-clinical studies suggest that important lead antibodies have been identified that block the cell-to-cell signalling molecules of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Blocking this signalling stops the bacteria from communicating - if bacteria cannot communicate, they cannot cause disease. Importantly, Ps aeruginosa is responsible for serious problems in patients with cystic fibrosis, immunocompromised patients and patients with severe burns; with a fatality rate of around 30%. This high mortality is due in part to the resistance the organism shows to existing antibiotic approaches. In a parallel strand of research, the development of passive immune therapies for the travel and critically ill markets is well advanced with activity directed at the flaviviruses – the class of viruses that cause Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, St Louise Encephalitis and importantly, West Nile Fever.

Alongside this, research on blocking cell-to-cell signalling in humans using specific, targeted antibodies has shown significant promise and is expected to result in novel therapeutics to treat diseases such as obesity and CNS disease.

www.haptogen.com   www.invinitybio.com 

A high-resolution digital photograph is available to support this news release.

Please call or email richard@kapleronline.com quoting ref HAP/PRL/017.

Caption: Jim Reid, CEO of Haptogen (left) meets Lord Sainsbury, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation, at BIO2004 in San Francisco last week.

Press contact: Richard Kent, Kapler Communications Ltd

Kapler Communications Ltd

Suite 2 Cressner House

12 Huntingdon Street

St Neots

Cambridgeshire

PE19 1BD

Tel:  +44 (0)1480 471117

Fax: +44 (0)1480 471118

E-mail: richard@kapleronline.com 

Haptogen contact: Jim Reid

Haptogen Limited

Polwarth Building

Foresterhill

Aberdeen

AB25 2ZD

T: +44 (0)1224 555889

F: +44 (0)1224 555844

Email: info@haptogen.com