arGEN-X, a clinical stage human monoclonal antibody therapeutics company, has attained a key success milestone in its SIMPLE Antibody research and product development collaboration with the Human Genetic Therapies division of Shire Pharmaceuticals. The milestone, which triggered an undisclosed payment from Shire, was the first demonstration of in vivo proof of concept for one of the antibody discovery programmes undertaken in the collaboration.

Under their February 29, 2012 agreement, the companies are collaborating to create human therapeutic antibodies against complex targets involved in severe, rare genetic diseases. Shire has an option to license the most promising antibody leads from each collaborative programme for further development and commercialization worldwide, in return for milestone and royalty payments. Under the terms of the license, arGEN-X has already received technology access fees and research funding and is eligible to receive preclinical success payments.

“We are pleased with the excellent progress that has resulted from an outstanding joint effort between our teams,” said Hans de Haard,chief scientific officer of arGEN-X. “This collaboration milestone is testament to the superiority of our proprietary SIMPLE Antibody platform and reinforces our brand in the complex targets space.”