Scancell and Isu Chemical Announce Collaboration and Licensing Agreement for Scancell's Antibody Cancer Drug SC100 in the Far East
Nottingham, UK – 4th February 2002 – Scancell Ltd today announced a collaboration and licensing agreement with Korean based ISU Chemical Co Ltd on its DeImmunised anti-Epidermal Growth Factor receptor (EGFr) antibody SC100. Under the terms of the agreement ISU Chemical will develop and market SC100 in Korea and other territories in the Far East. ISU will pay for the development and commercialisation of SC100 in the territory. Scancell will receive royalties on the sale of SC100 and access to all data generated by ISU for use in the development of SC100 in Europe and the US.
In addition ISU Chemical will invest $1 million in Scancell.
"Scancell is very pleased to have signed this deal with ISU on SC100" said Dr Richard Goodfellow, Commercial Director at Scancell. " Korea is rapidly establishing itself as a major player in biotechnology and ISU is at the forefront of this research. The deal with ISU will accelerate the development of SC100 and bring forward the time at which the product can enter clinical trials."
"ISU is delighted to have strengthened its antibody therapeutic development portfolio by signing this deal with Scancell", said Dr Chang Hoon Choi, Managing Director of ISU's Biotech Unit. "We believe that Scancell's expertise in the discovery of novel antigens and development of early-stage immunotherapeutics, and in particular monoclonal antibodies, will be strongly complementary to ISU's strengths in antibody production technology. We expect this initial agreement to be just the start of a successful long-term partnership between the two companies."
Scancell's expertise lies in the discovery and development of monoclonal antibodies and vaccines for the treatment of cancer. SC100 is a unique epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr) blocking antibody which has been developed for the treatment of any cancer in which the EGFr is upregulated, including lung, colorectal, breast and head and neck cancer. SC100 has been DeImmunised to ensure minimal immunogenicity in patients. Scancell has also identified a large number of novel antigens as potential targets for drug development. Monoclonal antibodies recognising these targets directly induce tumour cell apoptosis and synergise with chemotherapy, thereby reducing toxicity and increasing therapeutic efficacy. Scancell has also developed ImmunoBodies as a platform technology to overcome the present limitations of cancer vaccines. Scancell has previously announced an alliance with Genmab A/S to develop and commercialise human antibody therapeutics against Scancell's novel targets. For more information about Scancell visit www.scancell.co.uk
ISU Chemical is a Korean petrochemical company manufacturing a wide range of chemicals, from detergent based to synthetic pharmaceutical intermediates. Since April 2000, ISU has actively sought new business and R&D opportunities in the areas of human therapeutic antibody development and novel drug target discovery through strategic partnerships with innovative biotechnology companies and research organisations throughout the world. ISU's current development portfolio includes a humanized therapeutic monoclonal antibody to an undisclosed target molecule and a recombinant human protein for adjuvant use during chemotherapy. ISU is also undertaking research on novel drug targets for cancer and chronic diseases using antibody proteomics and functional genomics tools, both at its headquarters in Seoul, Korea and at its US biotechnology R&D Centre in Rockville, MD, USA.