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Scancell acquires novel antibodies from University of Nottingham
Novel immunotherapies developer Scancell Holdings has entered into an agreement with the University of Nottingham, it announced on Wednesday, to acquire a number of novel monoclonal antibodies to tumour-associated glycans.
The AIM-traded firm said alongside that, it also acquired a proprietary technology to enable the modification of the constant region of a human antibody to allow direct tumour killing.
Together, ita board said those offered a complementary platform to its existing cancer immunotherapy platforms, 'ImmunoBody' and 'Moditope'.
It explained that advances in understanding the pattern of sugars that adorn cells had highlighted important differences between those on tumour cells compared to their normal counterparts.
That altered sugar signature of tumour cells was said to be "intricately linked" to the majority of cancer cell biology hallmarks.
Antibodies that targeted such tumour glycan signatures, when coupled to a novel approach to invoke an immune response on binding, provided an attractive strategy for immunotherapy and formed the basis of the platform technology developed by professor Lindy Durrant and her team at the Nottingham University Therapeutic Antibody Centre, Scancell said.
Scancell would be responsible for the management, prosecution and maintenance of any patent applications assigned from the University of Nottingham to Scancell, as well as for the filing of new patent applications for the assigned antibodies.
Under the terms of the agreement, the University of Nottingham would be eligible to receive royalties on future licence revenue or net sales arising from the assigned antibodies.
"Professor Durrant and the team at NUTAC have developed a versatile method to generate high-affinity monoclonal antibodies against cancer cell glycans that, when coupled to a novel method of activating the immune system, have potential as a new class of cancer immunotherapy," said Scancell CEO Dr Cliff Holloway.
"We believe this platform complements our existing ImmunoBody and Moditope platforms, significantly broadening the strength and potential of Scancell's immunotherapy pipeline."
Dr Susan Huxtable, director of technology transfer for the University of Nottingham, said the organisation had "great confidence" in Scancell's ability to further develop its intellectual property.
"The mutually-beneficial relationship between Scancell and the university is an excellent example of university technology transfer in action."