Abzena and Telix Sign Licence Agreement for Abzena’s Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Antibodies

Melbourne (Australia) and Cambridge (UK) – 18 July 2017. Telix announces a licence agreement collaboration with Abzena plc for its prostate-specific membrane antigen antibodies (PSMA).

Telix is pleased to announce a licence agreement collaboration with Abzena plc (Abzena) for its prostate-specific membrane antigen antibodies (PSMA).

Telix will use Abzena’s PSMA antibodies to further strengthen its clinical development program to create antibody-directed radiopharmaceuticals that can be manufactured effectively with an optimised efficacy profile.

Under the collaboration, Telix will harness Abzena’s expertise in antibody engineering and conjugation to further complement their existing PSMA program including huJ591 for the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Christian Behrenbruch, CEO of Telix Pharmaceuticals, commented, “Radio-immunoconjugates have tremendous potential as one of the most adaptable site specific, precision medicines and, in prostate cancer, PSMA is increasingly recognised as an important target. This deal with Abzena significantly reinforces Telix’s development focus in prostate cancer. Our approach to delivering molecularly-targeted radiation not only represents the next frontier for radiation oncology therapy, but also has an important nexus with the rapidly developing field of cancer immunotherapy. Our mission is to build on existing clinical experience with PSMA antibody-directed radiation to create a product that can be manufactured effectively and with an optimised efficacy profile. We chose to work with Abzena because of its proven expertise in antibody engineering and conjugation, a track record which is reflected by the fact that there are 12 antibody drugs in the clinic that harness Abzena’s technology”.

John Burt, CEO of Abzena said, “We believe our expertise and integrated offering in biology, chemistry and biomanufacturing bring important capabilities to Telix, as it develops its exciting portfolio of next generation oncology radiopharmaceutical products. This agreement with Telix represents a further example of Abzena licensing its proprietary technology to a partner, while the concurrent entry into a new services agreement with Telix for further development work reaffirms the validity of our combined services and technology licensing business model.”

The full press release can be found here.