Cambridge Antibody Technology and Xerion Pharmaceuticals AG have entered into an agreement that paves the way for Xerion to develop and commercialise human monoclonal antibody-based drugs. Under the terms of the agreement, CAT has granted to Xerion options to take licences to develop and commercialise antibodies derived from CAT's proprietary antibody phage display libraries. These antibodies are directed against critical disease-associated protein targets characterised using Xerion's proprietary Xstream technologies. CAT will receive development based milestone payments and royalties on antibody products developed by Xerion and its collaborators.

This agreement strengthens and expands the existing relationship between the two companies established through a licence in June 2001 involving the research use of CAT's proprietary antibody phage display libraries. Subsequently, the companies initiated a joint research collaboration in 2002 to investigate the druggability of a target to treat allergic conditions.

Peter Chambre, CAT's Chief Executive Officer, commented: "We are impressed by Xerion's achievements to date with the CAT libraries and their continued commitment to target discovery and validation using our technology. The present agreement allows both parties to benefit from Xerion's strategy to build an antibody drug pipeline for itself and its partners."