CAT Granted Patent in US
June 20 2001 - 3:00AM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:5451F
Cambridge Antibody Tech Group PLC
20 June 2001
01/CAT/13
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
07.00 BST, 02.00 EST Wednesday 20 June 2001
For Further Information Contact:
Cambridge Antibody Technology Square Mile BSMG Worldwide (Europe)
Tel: +44 (0) 1763 263 233 Tel: +44 (0) 20 7601 1000
David Chiswell, CEO Kevin Smith
John Aston, Finance Director Graham Herring
Rowena Gardner, Head of Corporate
Communications
BMC Communications/The Trout Group
(USA)
Tel: 001 212 477 9007
Brad Miles, ext 17 (media)
Brandon Lewis, ext.15 (investors)
CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCES GRANT OF "WINTER II" PATENT IN US
Melbourn, UK... Cambridge Antibody Technology (LSE: CAT; NASDAQ: CATG) today
announced the issue of a US patent covering antibody expression libraries, the
"Winter II" patent, US 6,248,516.
The US Winter II patent is entitled "Single domain ligands, receptors
comprising said ligands, methods for their production, and use of said ligands
and receptors," and was issued on 19 June 2001. It is generally directed to
antibody variable domain expression libraries carrying a diversity of CDR3
sequences and methods of making such libraries.
The patent is co-owned by the Medical Research Council, The Scripps Research
Institute and Stratagene. CAT is the sole exploiter of the intellectual
property rights arising under the patent, subject to certain rights reserved
by the co-owners and their pre-existing licensees.
CAT also announced the filing of an infringement suit alleging that MorphoSys
AG and MorphoSys USA, Inc. infringe the Winter II patent. The suit was filed
in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California,
in San Diego. CAT has previously sued MorphoSys in Germany for infringement of
the European counterpart to the Winter II patent.
-ENDS-
Notes to Editors:
Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT)
CAT is a UK biotechnology company using its proprietary technologies in human
monoclonal antibodies for drug discovery and drug development. Based in
Melbourn, 10 miles south of Cambridge, England, CAT currently employs around
230 people.
CAT is listed on the London Stock Exchange, having raised #41m in its IPO in
March 1997. A further offering in March 2000 raised #93m. Also, CAT's ADRs are
listed on the US NASDAQ National Market.
CAT has an advanced platform technology for rapidly isolating human monoclonal
antibodies using phage display systems. CAT has an extensive phage antibody
library, currently incorporating around 100 billion distinct antibodies. This
library forms the basis for the company's strategy to develop a portfolio of
clinical development programmes and for discovering new drug leads using
functional genomics. Five human therapeutic antibodies developed by CAT are at
various stages of clinical trials.
CAT has a number of licence and collaborative agreements in place with
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including: Eli Lilly, Pfizer,
Genentech, ICOS, Genetics Institute, Wyeth-Ayerst, Human Genome Sciences,
Knoll Pharmaceuticals (a subsidiary of Abbott Pharmaceuticals), AstraZeneca,
Pharmacia, Oxford GlycoSciences, Genzyme, Immunex, Zyomyx and Elan.
Medical Research Council (MRC)
The MRC is the Medical Research Council of Great Britain. The MRC owns some of
the patent rights within CAT's patent portfolio either wholly or jointly with
CAT, which they have licensed to CAT under an agreement dated 7 January 1997.
CAT's patent portfolio
CAT now controls US patents covering three key areas: antibody expression
libraries (Winter II), phage display (McCafferty) and the isolation of human
antibodies to human proteins by phage display (Griffiths).
The granted US Winter II patent is entitled to a term expiring on 19 June
2018.
In 1999 CAT, Scripps and Stratagene settled a US infringement action between
Winter II and the Scripps/Stratagene/Huse/Lerner patent family from which CAT
gained worldwide commercial rights to the Huse/Lerner patents.
In Europe CAT's Winter II patent was granted on 9 April 1994 and was upheld
after opposition with an amendment to one of the 32 claims. The opposition
division decision has been appealed by CAT and MorphoSys (the only opponent).
CAT has initiated infringement proceedings against MorphoSys in Germany which
have been suspended pending the outcome of this appeal and a possible appeal
on a decision by the Opposition Division to uphold the McCafferty patent.
Other patents from the Winter II family have already been granted in Europe,
Australia, Japan and South Korea.
CDR3 (complementarity-determining region 3)
CDR3 (complementarity-determining region 3) is part of the antibody variable
region known to be hypervariable in sequence and important for antigen binding
specificity.
Application of the Safe Harbor of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995: This press release contains statements about Cambridge Antibody
Technology Group plc ("CAT") that are forward looking statements. All
statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press
release may be forward looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
These forward looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding
CAT's present and future business strategies and the environment in which CAT
will operate in the future. Certain factors that could cause CAT's actual
results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the
forward looking statements include: market conditions, CAT's ability to enter
into and maintain collaborative arrangements, success of product candidates in
clinical trials, regulatory developments and competition.
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