Morphotek Inc, a subsidiary of Eisai Corporation of North America, has signed a license agreement with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for the rights to a monoclonal antibody for a novel antigen identified by NCI researchers. Morphotek will apply its proprietary Morphodoma antibody technology to the development of novel human therapeutic antibodies for use in the treatment of prostate cancer.

"This agreement represents another important milestone in our efforts to expand our antibody portfolio," said Nicholas C Nicolaides, Ph D, president and CEO of Morphotek. "We remain committed to advancing mAb therapies for clinical development in this therapeutic area, which if promising, may one day become available to patients with prostate cancer."

Through years of basic research studying tumour cell biology, researchers at the NCI discovered several novel proteins, whose expression is restricted to malignant cells. In this instance, NCI researchers have identified monoclonal antibodies capable of binding to an antigen specific for prostate cells, including normal prostate cells, prostate adenocarcinomas and other prostate cancer cells. Morphotek will apply its proprietary Morphodoma antibody discovery technology to the development of human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that can bind the protein and test lead mAbs for anti-cancer properties. Leads that show good target binding and tumour specificity will be candidates for possible advancement to preclinical and clinical evaluation.

This is the second agreement signed this year between the NCI and Morphotek to expand their efforts in developing new therapies for the treatment of prostate cancer. These programs are consistent with Morphotek's and Eisai's human health care (hhc) mission to satisfy unmet medical needs and increase the benefits to patients and their families.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer, other than skin cancer, diagnosed in American men. An estimated 186,320 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2008 and one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.

Morphotek is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of protein and antibody products through the use of a novel and proprietary gene evolution technology.