Shanghai ChemPartner signs outsource research service agreement with Shenogen Pharma

Mar 16 2011

ShangPharma Corporation (NYSE: SHP) ("ShangPharma" or the "Company"), a leading China-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development outsourcing company, today announced that its wholly-owned contract research subsidiary, Shanghai ChemPartner, has signed an outsource research service agreement with Shenogen Pharma Group to develop therapeutic monoclonal antibodies targeting the ER-alpha 36 receptor for cancer treatment.  Shenogen Pharma Group is a China-based drug development venture that develops innovative therapeutics for the treatment of oncology indications including breast cancer and leukemia.

"We have evaluated multiple potential antibody development service partners in China," said Dr. Xueming Qian, who joined Shenogen as Vice President of Biology and Antibody Technology last June after working for twelve years in Amgen's discovery research group at its Thousand Oaks, California site.  "We decided to work with ChemPartner's Biologics Services team because they have the required therapeutic antibody drug research and development experience, expertise and people to support our therapeutic antibody program."

ChemPartner will be responsible for a spectrum of drug discovery activities for an integrated antibody drug development program including target protein production and cell line development, lead antibody generation and optimization (humanization and affinity maturation), assay development, protein analytics, DMPK, and in vivo pharmacology.

Dr. Chengbin Wu, Vice President of Biologics Services of ChemPartner, added, "We are delighted that Shenogen, an innovative drug development company, chose ChemPartner as its preferred outsource partner for antibody drug development.  Shenogen has a world-class management team and exclusive global intellectual property rights on a novel target (ER-alpha 36), and we fully anticipate that ChemPartner's outsource service will facilitate the rapid advancement of Shenogen's antibody pipeline projects into development stage and beyond."