Domantis signs deal with ImClone

US anti-cancer therapeutics company ImClone Systems has signed an agreement with UK antibody engineering company Domantis, to use Domantis' proprietary domain-antibody technology to develop new therapeutics.

The non-exclusive agreement allows ImClone to select domain antibodies (dAbs) from Domantis' dAb libraries, which contain billions of different human antibodies potentially capable of binding to any human antigen.

ImClone is the second big biomedical company to sign up with Domantis, which is 36.1 per cent owned by Sydney biotechnology company Peptech. Last year European biomedical corporation Abbott Laboratories signed a similar agreement to develop single-domain therapeutics.

ImClone has several therapeutics in clinical trials -- a molecule that blocks for the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor, which is over-expressed by many tumours, an angiogenesis inhibitor to prevent the prolific blood vessel growth that nourishes all solid tumours, and a vaccine that mimics a surface protein found on many tumour cells.

According to a Peptech press release, Domantis will receive technology licence fees as well as milestones and royalties on any therapeutic dAb products developed by ImClone Systems.

Domantis CEO Robert Connelly said the new agreement with ImClone underlined "the value and potential of our unique dAb libraries, coming just four months after we entered a dAb research and development alliance with Abbott Laboratories."

Connelly said Domantis expected to enter more partnership and licensing agreements with clients seeking to exploit its dAb engineering technology in the coming year.

Revenues from these agreements will support Domantis' own in-house drug-discovery program. Connelly says Domantis has 12 in-house therapeutic projects, and expects several candidate dAb molecule to enter pre-clinical studies in the coming fiscal year.

Dabs are cut-down human antibodies, consisting of just the finger-like functional domain that 'grasps' the target antigen.

They are less than a tenth the size of a normal human antibody, and can be engineered for a shorter half-life in the body, as well as to contact antigen domains that are inaccessible to full-sized antibodies.

DAbs are also easier to deliver, and cheaper to produce than conventional antibody therapeutics; their specificity also minimises toxicity.