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ARIUS Announces Progress of PDL Collaboration
ARIUS Announces Progress of PDL Collaboration.
About this update from Affinity Metals Corp
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n\n(TSX Venture: ARI)\n\nTORONTO, Nov. 10 /CNW/ - ARIUS Research Inc. (TSX-V: ARI) today announced\nthat a group of novel anti-cancer antibodies in their collaboration with\nProtein Design Labs, Inc. (PDL) has met another research objective based on\nexperiments conducted by PDL. These anti-cancer antibodies were produced\nthrough ARIUS' FunctionFIRST(TM) platform then selected by the Collaboration\nin early 2005 to move forward. Now, successful and timely completion of this\nsecond objective means these antibodies have met the next requirement for\nlicensing.\nThe three-year collaboration was originally announced in 2003. Under the\nagreement, ARIUS was paid an upfront technology access fee to support their\nresearch efforts and to fund generation of new, anti-cancer antibodies using\nits proprietary FunctionFIRST(TM) platform. ARIUS will receive licensing fees,\nmilestone payments, and a percentage royalty on any licensed antibody.\n\"We are excited and pleased by these new data from PDL,\" said Dr. David\nYoung, President of ARIUS Research Inc. \"Their efforts and commitment to our\ncollaboration are building considerable value into the antibodies and helping\nwith their rapid progress.\"\nInterest in functional anti-cancer antibodies has grown since the release\nof studies this year that showed an improvement in survival for breast cancer\npatients who were treated with the antibody, Herceptin. The overall antibody\nmarket has been forecast to reach $12 billion by 2008. The ARIUS/PDL\ncollaboration has the potential to develop antibodies for multiple types of\ncancers.\n\nAbout ARIUS Research\n\nARIUS Research Inc. is a biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery\nand development of novel anticancer monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Established\nin 1999, ARIUS has built a proprietary technology platform, FunctionFIRST(TM),\nthat rapidly identifies powerful MAbs targeting a variety of cancer\nindications. This antibody generation engine has enabled ARIUS to assemble a\ngrowing pipeline of over 300 functional MAbs, which may be used for commercial\ncollaborations, out-licensing or in-house development. ARIUS has ongoing\nlicensing and research partnerships with key biotechnology and drug\ndevelopment companies that provide revenues and access to external\ntechnologies. The long-term vision of ARIUS is to deliver person...