Avidex licenses Diabetes target from King's College London

12-Oct-2005

UK biotech firm Avidex today announced that it has licensed exclusive rights to develop products recognising a proprietary antigen associated with type 1 diabetes from King's College London (KCL). Avidex will develop one of its soluble monoclonal T cell receptors (mTCRs) to target KCL's antigen on the islet cells in the pancreas. The antigen, which is highly expressed on such cells, was discovered by researchers at KCL and is thought to be present in a substantial proportion of patients with type I diabetes, making it an extremely attractive target for the development of diabetes therapies. Avidex's mTCR protein therapy which targets this antigen is called HiDex® and is in pre-clinical research. HiDex® is a fusion protein of the specific mTCR and a cytokine known to be a potent immunomodulator. It is designed to down-regulate the autoimmune response that destroys insulin producing cells within the pancreas at the onset of diabetes with the aim of maintaining islet cell function. If successful this will preclude or reduce the need for patients to administer recombinant insulin. Soluble mTCRs offer the best approach for targeting this antigen as it is from an intracellular protein and TCRs are able to bind such antigens. The licensing agreement brings together for the first time the leading research of Professor Mark Peakman of King's College London, who is investigating the role of antigens in type 1 diabetes, and Avidex's expertise in generating highly specific soluble T cell receptors. Avidex uses phage display to engineer mTCRs able to bind the target with sufficiently high affinity to become useful therapeutically. Dr Neill Moray MacKenzie, Chief Business Officer at Avidex, said, "While targeted immunotherapeutic approaches are being investigated as novel therapies in type 1 diabetes in academia, and to a lesser extent industry, until now there have been no immunotherapeutic approaches for diabetes using targets that may allow the specific protection of islet cells. Avidex's mTCR technology is the only approach that allows targeted antigen specific suppression of autoimmune T cell responses. This new approach brings the hope of altering the progression and treatment of this serious disease and represents a new indication for Avidex, expanding our pipeline in autoimmune diseases." Professor Peakman agrees. "The mTCR technology that Avidex can bring to the field of type 1 diabetes is unique in targeting immune modulation to the islets, where it is needed. Combined with the right antigens, there is every expectation of translating this into a powerful therapeutic." Dr MacKenzie added, "Professor Peakman and his colleagues at King's College London are leading authorities on diabetes associated antigens and we are delighted to announce this opportunity to work with them." Professor Peakman is equally enthusiastic; "The prospect of working with Avidex is an exciting one. Their's is cutting edge technology that has a very real prospect of future translation into therapeutics for type 1 diabetes." Dr Angela Wilson, Director of Research at Diabetes UK said, "We are delighted that Avidex has bought a licence to help develop this groundbreaking research. This is a prime example of how the investment of Diabetes UK has taken research from the laboratory to a stage where it has real potential to make a difference to people with diabetes. We are tremendously excited by this." * Professor Peakman's research is supported by Diabetes UK and the Wellcome Trust

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