Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and Roche will acquire unlimited access to Open Monoclonal Technology, Inc. (OMT)'s OmniRat through the purchase of one of OMT’s spinout companies. OMT is an innovator in transgenic research for discovery of human therapeutic antibodies.

Following the acquisition, Genentech and Roche will be able to use the platform to generate human therapeutic antibodies for any target and indication. Genentech and Roche also gained the right to further engineer the antibody platform.

“Genentech is a leader in the discovery and development of innovative therapeutic antibodies,” said Dr James Sabry, senior vice president and global head of Genentech Partnering. “We believe that OmniRat is a highly efficient antibody platform that will accelerate our antibody discovery efforts.”

Dr Roland Buelow, founder and CEO of OMT, noted, “Genentech and Roche are OMT’s sixth partner to acquire unlimited access to the OmniRat human antibody platform. The deal will help Genentech and Roche maintain their leadership position in therapeutic antibodies and OMT to continue to offer its global partner base the best transgenic animals for human therapeutic antibody discovery and development.”

Open Monoclonal Technology, Inc. (OMT) is a leader in genetic engineering of animals for discovery of human therapeutic antibodies, naturally optimized human antibodies, and the only company with three antibody platforms.

OmniRat is the industry’s first fully human monoclonal antibody technology based on rats. OMT, in collaboration with Pfizer, has demonstrated that OmniRat has a complete immune system with diverse antibody repertoire and generates antibodies with human idiotypes as robustly as a wild-type animals make rat antibodies.

OmniMouse is OMT’s transgenic mouse that complements OmniRat, expanding epitope coverage, and delivering fully human antibodies with high affinity and specificity.

OmniFlic is the first engineered rat with a fixed light chain designed for developing human, bispecific antibodies.

All OMT antibody platforms have broad freedom to operate and use technology protected by new patents and patent applications. The company has given licenses for unlimited platform access to Genentech, Janssen, Merck KGaA, Pfizer, Roche, Symphogen and WuXi AppTec and for individual targets to several smaller biopharmaceutical companies.