Cambridge Antibody - Chairman's AGM Statement
February 05 1999 - 7:00AM
UK Regulatory
RNS No 2103u
CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY GROUP
5th February 1999
For Further Information Contact:
Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc
Mr John Aston, Finance Director Tel: +44 (0) 1763 263233
HCC.De Facto
Trade/Science, Nikul Odedra
City/Financial, Nicola How Tel: +44 (0) 171 496 3300
CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY GROUP PLC
Annual General Meeting
Chairman's Statement
Melbourn. UK... At the Company's Annual General Meeting, held today in
Melbourn, Professor Peter Garland, Chairman of Cambridge Antibody Technology,
gave shareholders a brief update on activities since November.
"Since my report to shareholders in late November we received the sad news of
the death of Alistair Cumming, who became a non-executive director of CAT last
March. In only a short time with us Alistair made a major contribution to
CAT. His wisdom and judgement will be sadly missed.
I am pleased however to be able to announce the appointment of two additional
non-executive directors, whose appointment will take immediate effect
following this meeting.
Paul Nicholson (61) has over thirty years experience in the pharmaceutical
industry, most recently at SmithKline Beecham where he was Senior Vice
President of Clinical Research & Worldwide Development. He retired from SB at
the end of 1998. Previously he held senior positions at both Monsanto,
Hoechst and Stirling Winthrop. He is a qualified physician.
Uwe Bicker (53) is Executive Chairman of Dade Behring Inc and a member of the
board of management of Hoechst Marion Roussel AG. He has more than twenty
years experience in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries. Prior to
joining the Hoechst group in 1994 Professor Bicker was a board member of
Boehringer Mannheim GmbH. He is a qualified physician, holds doctorates in
chemistry and medicine and has a teaching chair at the University of
Heidelberg Medical School.
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Paul Nicholson and Uwe Bicker
onto the CAT board, their very relevant experience will be of direct benefit
to us as CAT advances products further through the drug development process.
We have recently been granted a US patent for bispecific diabodies. This is
an important extension of our intellectual property position in antibodies and
provides us with a strong patent position for this promising format for
therapeutic antibodies.
In September last year CAT initiated a patent infringement action against
MorphoSys of Germany. Since the announcement of our interim results we have
received notification from the District Court of Munich that a date has been
set, for early summer, for the preliminary hearing. MorphoSys, which has
recently announced its intention to float on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt, is
infringing two CAT patents - Winter et al which covers CAT's antibody gene
expression libraries and McCafferty et al which covers CAT's phage display of
antibody fragments. Both patents underpin CAT's antibody display technology.
As we noted in the statement issued in September of last year, the action
seeks to stop MorphoSys infringing CAT's patents and does not in any way
impact on CAT's freedom to operate its technology. We will continue to update
you as events progress.
Finally, last week CAT was honoured to receive the 1998 UK Prix Galien
Research Award. The Prix Galien represents the top award in pharmaceutical
research for outstanding achievement in either product or technology
development. CAT received the award for its phage antibody technology
demonstrated through the development of 6B1, CAT's human monoclonal antibody
to prevent scarring in and around the eye following surgery.
I look forward to reporting on our further progress in more detail at our
interim results in May".
Notes to Editors
1. CAT is a UK biotechnology company using its proprietary technologies in
fully human monoclonal antibodies for drug discovery and drug development.
Based in Melbourn, 10 miles south of Cambridge, England, CAT currently employs
around 150 people. In March 1997, CAT completed its initial public offering
and listing on the London Stock Exchange, raising approximately #41 million.
CAT has a world-leading platform technology for rapidly isolating fully human
monoclonal antibodies using phage display systems. CAT has an extensive phage
display 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. The first two antibody products it developed
started clinical trials in 1997, in inflammation and fibrosis.
CAT has a number of license and collaborative agreements in place with
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including: Eli Lilly, Pfizer, BASF
Pharma, Genentech, ICOS Corporation, Genetics Institute/BASF Pharma,
Mitsubishi Chemical and Obesys.
2. 6B1is a fully human anti-TGFbeta2 monoclonal antibody. It was isolated
from CAT's phage antibody libraries and is currently under Phase I/IIa
clinical assessment for the prevention of eye scarring following surgery for
glaucoma and for retinal detachment.
3. TGFb is a multifunctional cytokine that appears in three isoforms in
mammals. TGFb induces the deposition of extracellular matrix; overproduction
of TGFb can lead to excessive extracellular matrix production which is the
hallmark of tissue fibrosis. TGFb2 is the isoform which is predominant in the
human eye
4. The UK Prix Galien is sponsored by Reed Healthcare and organised by
WestawayGillis. No commercial sponsorship of the award is permitted to ensure
total independence. Last year's winner of the UK Prix Galien was Eli Lilly
for its Zyprexa antipyschotic (only the Innovative Products Award was run last
year).
END
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