Affomix to generate antibodies against proprietary targets chosen by Kalgene

Affomix CorporationDec 29 2009

Affomix Corporation, a pioneer in the development of automated, high-throughput monoclonal antibody selection technology, announced today that Kalgene Pharmaceuticals Inc. has signed a commercial agreement to have Affomix utilize its Y2HExpress™ technology to select antibodies with potential diagnostic and therapeutic utility in breast cancer. Kalgene Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a private company focused on the development of oncology therapeutics and companion diagnostics. The company's portfolio of oncology products is at various stages in development, from assay development to advanced clinical trials.

“Affomix is pleased to be working with Kalgene, a pharmaceutical company executing a strategy of therapeutic development in conjunction with companion diagnostic development”

Under the terms of the agreement Affomix will generate antibodies against several proprietary targets selected by Kalgene. Affomix will utilize its Y2HExpress™ technology for the selection of single-chain antibodies with substantially increased throughput, and specificity, over conventional Y2H and alternative antibody selection methodologies. Financial terms of the service agreement were not disclosed, nor were the financial milestones related to diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

“After much diligence, Kalgene chose Affomix as the company to rapidly procure antibodies against our proprietary targets”, said Dr. T. Nathan Yoganathan, President and CEO of Kalgene Pharmaceuticals Inc. “Y2HExpress™ has the ability to select antibodies at an unprecedented level of specificity, combined with very favorable financial advantages,” Yoganathan continued.

“The application of Affomix technology will accelerate our product development schedule”, said Robert Davidson, Director of Science and Technology for Kalgene.

“Affomix is pleased to be working with Kalgene, a pharmaceutical company executing a strategy of therapeutic development in conjunction with companion diagnostic development,” said John Boyce, Head of Business Development for Affomix and Co-Founder of Delphi Bio, LLC. “Our technology and business model offers substantial incentives for developers of therapeutic and diagnostic products”.

“Our automated high-throughput procedures allow us to quickly identify highly specific antibodies against predetermined regions of target proteins. These antibodies are well suited for experimental use while serving as ideal starting points for development of diagnostic and therapeutic agents”, said Michael Sherman, President of Affomix.