Basel, Switzerland, Ghent, Belgium and Breda, The Netherlands, 18 Feb 2015 – Lonza, a global leader in biological manufacturing and arGEN-X N.V., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating and developing differentiated therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer and severe autoimmune diseases, announced today that they have entered into a new, multi-product commercial license agreement for the production of arGEN-X’s therapeutic antibodies. The license secures long-term access for arGEN-X and its strategic partners to Lonza’s proprietary GS Xceed™ System for creation and development of cell lines to be utilized in the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals.
“The initiation of the multi-product GS Xceed™ License Agreement allows both companies the flexibility to move forward to commercial production of arGEN-X products, both now and in the future”, said Karen Fallen, VP Head of Licensing, Lonza Custom Development Services.
“Over the past four years, we have developed an excellent working relationship with Lonza, as evidenced by this new license agreement. The multi-product license strengthens the competitive positioning of our products and those of our sublicensees by optimizing the pharmacoeconomics of the antibody development process,” said Tim Van Hauwermeiren, CEO of arGEN-X. “We look forward to continuing to develop and manufacture our pipeline of differentiated therapeutic antibody products and to offering the benefits of this new license to our strategic partners.”
The GS Xceed™ license agreement builds upon the productive relationship between Lonza and arGEN-X. Lonza has manufactured two of arGEN-X’s clinical-stage proprietary therapeutic antibodies to date, as well as a third program due to commence clinical trials in 2015. Under the new agreement, arGEN-X has access to the GS Xceed™ System for the development and manufacture of both current and future therapeutic antibody products.
The GS Xceed™ System is Lonza’s latest innovation in mammalian protein expression, offering reduced cell line construction timelines and increased product yields. For products in the early stages of development, the system was designed to help create commercially viable production cell lines for seamless integration into the Lonza platform process.