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Antibody Therapies to Get Boost from Genmab and Argenx Partnership for Immunology and Oncology

The partnership aims to address unmet patient needs in the areas of immunology and cancer.

Two global biotech companies, Genmab and argenx, have announced plans to work together on discovering, developing, and producing new antibodies for therapeutic immunology and oncology. Both companies are specialists in antibody technologies and engineering, with Genmab focussing on cancers and argenx concentrating on immunological indications.

Jan van de Winkel, Chief Executive Officer at Genmab said that his company “is entering the therapeutic area of immunology and inflammation as a steppingstone to achieving its vision that by 2030, our knock-your-socks-off “KYSO” antibody medicines will be transforming the lives of people with cancer and other serious diseases.”

The companies have said that the goal of this project is to address unmet patient needs in immunology and cancer. Part of the agreement says that the two companies will share the suites of antibody technologies to advance the identification of new antibody leads.

“Our core mission is to innovate on behalf of patients by translating immunology breakthroughs into novel pipeline candidates. We do this through a model of co-creation which has led to eight molecules demonstrating human proof-of-concept in our pipeline,” said Tim Van Hauwermeiren, Chief Executive Officer at argenx.

Their press announcement states that “argenx and Genmab will jointly discover, develop and commercialize products emerging from the collaboration while equally sharing costs as well as any potential future profits.” The partnership will first look at one immunology target and one oncology target, before potentially progressing on to other differentiated targets.

On the collaboration, van de Winkel said:

“By partnering with argenx, we will be able to combine our deep knowledge of the biology and therapeutic power of antibodies and have an opportunity to address patients’ needs in oncology as well as in immunology and inflammation.”

Van Hauwermeiren also offered:

“Through our collaboration with Genmab, we are bringing together our combined antibody discovery, development, and commercialization expertise to unlock insights on the disease pathways that we will address. This allows us to broaden our capabilities and maximize the opportunity to generate novel therapeutic antibodies within autoimmunity or cancer.”

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