Abbott and Caprion Proteomics, a general partnership wholly owned by Thallion Pharmaceuticals have extended their discovery partnership to investigate viable human therapeutic antibody targets for oncology using their CellCarta technology platform. The two companies began working together on lung cancer targets three years ago.

The extended agreement allows Abbott to retain exclusive rights to 10 targets in lung cancer identified by Caprion for up to two years. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"The collaboration with Caprion fits our strategy to extend Abbott's portfolio with novel therapies in areas of high unmet clinical need. From day one, the partnership with Caprion has resulted in a series of potential therapeutic antibody targets for oncology and this extension will provide the additional time required to complete the pre-clinical evaluation of the 10 targets we have selected during the course of our agreement," said Stephen Fesik, divisional vice president, Cancer Research, Abbott.

"We are pleased Abbott has decided to extend our drug discovery collaboration in lung cancer. By combining the strength of Caprion's proteomics discovery platform with Abbott's capabilities in oncology discovery and biologics development, we have demonstrated biological validation of CellCarta's novel target discovery capabilitiesand are creating a tremendous opportunity to find new therapies for cancer patients," said Martin LeBlanc, president of Caprion Proteomics.

Abbott is engaged in the discovery and validation of novel monoclonal antibody drug targets for lung cancer. The company formed a collaboration to integrate Caprion's proprietary CellCarta platform, which utilized human lung cancer tissues and unique cell fractionation and quantitative proteomics technologies, with Abbott's capabilities in oncology research and monoclonal antibody development. Caprion may receive additional future payments upon Abbott's achievement of certain critical research and development milestones, as well as from royalties on future product sales resulting from their agreement.