On December 2, 2019 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) reported it has entered into a worldwide OmniAb license agreement with Sanofi (Press release, Ligand, DEC 2, 2019, View Source [SID1234551812]). Under the agreement, Sanofi will be able to use Ligand’s full OmniAb antibody discovery platform which includes OmniRat, OmniFlic, OmniMouse, OmniChicken and OmniClic in addition to Ligand’s patented antigen technology. OmniAb is licensed to over 40 corporate partners globally, and this deal with Sanofi adds to a growing portfolio of OmniAb discovery and clinical development programs with global fully-integrated pharmaceutical companies. Sanofi will pay Ligand an up-front platform access fee, development and regulatory milestone payments and potential royalties on sales of marketed products.
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"This agreement provides Sanofi with access to the industry’s only human immunoglobulin transgenic rats and chickens for efficient generation of mono- and bispecific antibody therapeutics," said John Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand. "We are pleased to collaborate with a company committed to antibody therapeutics for many years and add OmniAb’s in vivo platform to Sanofi’s outstanding antibody development capabilities."
About OmniAb
OmniAb is a three-species transgenic-animal platform consisting of five different technologies used for producing mono- and bispecific human therapeutic antibodies. OmniRat animals comprise the industry’s first human monoclonal antibody technology based on rats. Because they have a complete immune system with a diverse antibody repertoire, OmniRat animals generate antibodies with human idiotypes as effectively 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. OmniChicken animals comprise the industry’s first human monoclonal antibody technology based on chickens. The OmniClic chicken is specifically developed to facilitate the generation of bispecific antibodies and retains the ability to generate diverse, high quality affinity matured antibodies. All five types of OmniAb therapeutic human antibody platform, OmniRat, OmniFlic, OmniMouse, OmniChicken and OmniClic, use patented technology, have broad freedom to operate, produce highly diversified, fully human antibody repertoires optimized in vivo for immunogenicity, manufacturability, and therapeutic efficacy, and deliver fully human antibodies with high affinity, specificity, expression, solubility and stability – Naturally Optimized Human Antibodies.