Selexis SA and Fusion Antibodies Services Form Partnership to Speed Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibody Development

Geneva, Switzerland, May 23, 2012 (PRNewswire) – Selexis SA, a global life sciences company for drug discovery, cell line development and scale-up to manufacturing of therapeutic proteins, announced today the establishment of a partnership with Fusion Antibodies Services that will combine core technologies of the two companies allowing customers to link monoclonal antibody (MAb) humanization programs with the generation of high performing and fully documented CHO cell lines. Customers will be able to seamlessly go from non-human MAbs to clinical candidate generated in a cGMP-ready CHO cell line in 8 months. Clinical candidates are selected based on both expression and binding activity from stable CHO pools.

Using the antibody humanization and engineering services from Fusion Antibodies, sequenced variable domains of mouse MAbs from a hybridoma cell line are analyzed using bioinformatics. The complementarity determining regions (CDRs) of the variable domains are identified and incorporated into human immunoglobulin donor sequences to generate panels of full length heavy and light chain antibodies. Optimal heavy and light chain pairs are chosen using the Selexis SUREvariant Screening™ platform which allows for the identification of the best antibody based on both activity and expression level from stable cell pools.

“Fusion’s world-class antibody humanization and sequencing services are a natural fit with our unique cell line generation technology platform. This partnership will help support our customers much earlier in the discovery process,” said Dr. Igor Fisch, President, and CEO of Selexis. “Selexis is recognized as a leader in mammalian cell line development, and now we continue to demonstrate the power of the SUREtechnology™ Platform for drug discovery and lead identification.”

“This collaboration is a major paradigm shift in the development and selection of a lead clinical candidate. Now our customers can make critical decisions based on activity and expression level, a key element in both clinical and commercial success,” said Dr. Paul Kerr, Managing Director of Fusion Antibodies. “Combining our expertise provides a seamless approach for improving and expediting therapeutic monoclonal antibody development.”

Selexis’ SURE Variant Screening™ accelerates and improves outcomes in display library screening campaigns by reducing the number of steps and increasing the total productivity of the system. The SURE Variant Screening™ utilizes the proprietary Selexis SUREtechnology Platform™ and the Selexis SURECHO-M™ cell line to generate variant panels ranging from several to > 100 stably-expressing protein variant cell lines, with typical expression levels above 100 mg/L. These variant proteins, expressed with mammalian modifications, can be assessed for activity. Manufacturing cell lines of the top candidates can be readily isolated from the stable transfectants. The Selexis SURE Variant Screening™ applied to protein display screening campaigns: (i) determines the values of mammalian protein modifications early, (ii) weeds out candidates that cannot be easily expressed in mammalian cells, (iii) ensures a steady supply of preclinical material, (iv) promotes faster, more informed decision-making, (v) eliminates the need for transient transfection and (vi) significantly reduces development time (approximately 6 months) and costs (approximately $500,000).

Fusion Antibodies Services is a contract research organization offering services to the bioscience industry. Fusion has expertise in producing specific antibodies for therapeutic, diagnostic and theranostic applications. Fusion Antibodies specializes in the bioinformatic design expression & purification of recombinant proteins for the research, diagnostic and therapeutic discovery markets. The company offers a global service based on its award-winning high through-put FET™ (Fusion Expression Technology) platform. This expertise has resulted in making over 500 recombinant proteins for a global customer base. Combined with these services, Fusion Antibodies offers MAb development and downstream Antibody sequencing services, Antibody engineering of scFv or FAb, Chimerization, and Full humanization.

The company was founded in 2001 from Queens University, Belfast, and having gained several awards is rapidly becoming one of Northern Irelands leading new companies in the BioScience arena.

For more information:

Visit www.fusionantibodies.com

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