RNS No 9131b
CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY GROUP PLC
30 March 1999


For Further Information Contact:
Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc       Tel: +44 (0) 1763 263233
Dr David Chiswell, Chief Executive Officer       
John Aston, Finance Director

HCC.De Facto                                  Tel: +44 (0) 171 496 3300
City/Financial, Nicola How       
Trade/Science, Andrew Worsfold

Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories
Douglas Petkus                                Tel: +1 610 971 4980
                                                                              
                                                                              
                 CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY & WYETH-AYERST                 
                       LABORATORIES FORM MAJOR ALLIANCE                       
                   

Wyeth-Ayerst signs broad deal to harness CAT's technologies
for target validation and therapeutic product development

Melbourn, UK and Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc
("CAT")(LSE : CAT), and the research division of Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories -
Wyeth-Ayerst Research, (NYSE : AHP), today announced that they have entered
into an agreement for the broad application of CAT's functional genomics and
antibody engineering expertise to the discovery and development of new
therapeutics based on targets identified by Wyeth-Ayerst.   
Summing up the alliance Dr Steven C. Clark, Senior Vice President, Discovery
Research, Wyeth-Ayerst Research, commented:
"CAT has developed powerful technologies both to enhance and accelerate the
selection of drug targets and to develop fully human antibody therapeutics.
This agreement will help Wyeth-Ayerst more efficiently mine the wealth of
information generated by our research programmes and expand our portfolio of
antibody therapeutics." 

Dr. David Chiswell, Chief Executive Officer at CAT, said:
"The alliance with Wyeth-Ayerst, a world leader in biopharmaceutical research,
provides CAT with outstanding potential targets and complementary target
validation technologies to help fuel our antibody product pipeline as well as
generating near-term revenue.  It is a major endorsement of the capabilities
we have established in functional genomics over the past two years, and of our
antibody engineering expertise." 
The agreement with Wyeth-Ayerst comprises a research collaboration, a product
collaboration and a library licence option.
Under the terms of the research collaboration, Wyeth-Ayerst has agreed to pay
CAT $4 million per annum in research funding for up to four years, for CAT to
apply its proprietary ProAb and ProxiMol functional genomics technologies to
potential protein targets based on gene sequence information provided by
Wyeth, together with other research work.  In conjunction with this
collaboration, CAT will establish its bioinformatics software, CONT1NUITYTM,
at Wyeth's research facilities in the U.S., to facilitate Wyeth's access to
the large amounts of data supplied by CAT.  Wyeth-Ayerst has options to
develop antibody products derived from the research collaboration; CAT
receives license fees, clinical milestone fees and royalties in respect of
these products.  

Under the product collaboration, Wyeth-Ayerst and CAT will validate and
develop product candidates directed at novel proprietary Wyeth targets as well
as targets contributed by CAT, with the goal of developing a broad portfolio
of human antibody-based drug candidates.  Each company has the opportunity to
select candidates for further development from this pool.  The companies will
share equally the target and product validation costs. For those product
candidates developed by Wyeth, CAT will receive license fees, clinical
milestone fees and royalties. For those products developed by CAT,
Wyeth-Ayerst will receive license fees, clinical milestone fees and royalties
and limited rights to partner the programme after Phase II clinical trials.
CAT has also granted Wyeth-Ayerst multi-site options to license CAT's phage
library technology with associated product development options.
The total of research funding, potential library licence fees and potential
fees and milestones from the product collaboration is approximately $70
million.  In addition there are potential fees and milestones on product
development options under the research collaboration and library licence
option.



Notes to editors

1. Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, a division of American Home Products (NYSE:
AHP), is a major research-oriented pharmaceutical company with leading
products in the area of women's health care, cardiovascular disease therapies,
central nervous system drugs, anti-inflammatory agents, vaccines, and generic
pharmaceuticals.

The statements in this press release that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties including,
without limitation, risks associated with the inherent uncertainty of
pharmaceutical research, product development and commercialization, and the
impact of competitive products and patents.  Risks and uncertainties also
include those detailed from time to time in AHPs periodic reports filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission including Quarterly Reports on Form10-Q
and Annual reports on Form 10-K and Form 20-F.  Actual results may differ from
the forward looking statements.


2. 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
over 140 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 and
Mitsubishi Chemical.

3. ProAb is CAT's approach to functional genomics using the antibody
library as a tool to build a database of information on where a protein is
made, where it ends up and whether it has any connection with important
diseases.  Proteins implicated with disease can then be the principle targets
of antibody and small molecule drugs.  ProAb has been developed to a level
where CAT can analyse data on approximately 1000 potential drug targets per
month.  ProxiMol is a proprietary method for identifying molecules in close
proximity to a potential drug target, providing important information related
to target validation and new target discovery. ProAb and ProxiMol, along with
bioinformatics software CONT1NUITYTM  provide powerful, high throughput and
complementary tools for selecting the most promising targets for drug
discovery. 


END


MSCALLLTVLIAFAA
Catco Reinsurance Opport... (LSE:CAT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024 Click Here for more Catco Reinsurance Opport... Charts.
Catco Reinsurance Opport... (LSE:CAT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024 Click Here for more Catco Reinsurance Opport... Charts.