Open Monoclonal Technology, Inc., (OMT) and Amgen Inc have entered into a licence agreement providing Amgen Inc with access to OMT’s proprietary OmniRat, OmniMouse and OmniFlic human antibody generation platforms, jointly known as OmniAb.
Amgen becomes OMT’s 12th non-academic partner globally with such multi-platform access.
Dr. Roland Buelow, OMT founder and chief executive officer, said “Amgen was an early protein therapeutics leader and became one of a few companies with transgenic mouse platforms for human antibody discovery in 2005 when they acquired Abgenix and its XenoMouse. With the license from OMT, Amgen further builds on this capability as it gains access to complementary platforms for development of fully human, mono- and bispecific antibodies without any target restrictions.”
OMT is a leader in genetic engineering of animals for the generation of human therapeutic antibodies, naturally optimized human antibodies, and the only company in the world with four transgenic animal platforms, jointly known as OmniAb.
OmniRat is the industry’s first human monoclonal antibody technology based on rats. It has a complete immune system with a diverse antibody repertoire and generates antibodies with human idiotypes as well as wild-type animals make rat antibodies. OmniMouse is a transgenic mouse that complements OmniRat and expands epitope coverage. OmniFlic is an engineered rat with a fixed light chain for development of bispecific, fully human antibodies. UniRat is the first transgenic rat generating fully human heavy chain-only antibodies and nanobodies for polyspecific applications.
All four OmniAb platforms deliver human antibodies with high affinity, specificity, expression, solubility and stability. They use patented technology, have broad freedom to operate and are available worldwide for all targets and indications.
Current partners include Amgen, Caltech, Celgene, Chugai, Genmab, Genentech, HanAll, Janssen, Merck KGaA, Pfizer, Roche, Symphogen, University of Nottingham and several undisclosed biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Animal hosting and OmniAb antibody discovery services are available via Antibody Solutions, Panoply Bio and Sage Labs in the US, Aldevron and Taconic Biosciences in Europe, and WuXi AppTec in China.