Tag: innovative human antibody therapeutics
Company News: OcellO and Merus Sign Agreement for Screening Bispecific Cancer Antibodies
OcellO B.V. and Merus B.V. have entered into a collaboration under which OcellO will provide screening services to Merus. OcellO, a biotech company providing drug discovery screening services using its proprietary high throughput 3D cell culture-based screening platform, will use its platform to profile bispecific antibodies designed by Merus for the treatment of cancer. Financial details of the collaboration have not been disclosed.
Mark Throsby, Chief Operating Officer at Merus, commented: “The strength of our approach is its ability to generate thousands of full-length, bispecific human IgG antibodies addressing combinations of targets expressed by tumor cells. OcellO is able to provide high quality data on the functional properties of large panels of bispecific antibodies. These data can’t be obtained from other in vitro screening assays and are pivotal in identifying antibody leads with unique modes of action.”
Company News: Merus Selects Clinical Candidate for the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
Merus B.V., a biopharmaceutical company focusing on innovative human antibody therapeutics, today announced that it has selected MCLA-117 as lead candidate for clinical studies in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). MCLA-117 is a human, full-length IgG bispecific antibody, which activates the patient’s own immune system by simultaneously binding to the CLEC12A molecule expressed by AML tumor cells and the CD3 molecule expressed by T cells. MCLA-117-mediated co-engagement of CLEC12A and CD3 results in the potent killing of cancerous AML cells and their malignant precursors. Merus intends to start phase I clinical trials with MCLA-117 in 2014.
The antibody is based on Merus’ Biclonics™ ENGAGE platform. Human bispecific antibodies from this platform can be manufactured and administered like conventional, full-length IgG molecules, thereby providing for high yield, good stability and a long serum half life. In addition, bispecific antibodies from the Biclonics™ ENGAGE platform have a modified constant region to abrogate unwanted clinical cytokine release.
Prof. Gert Ossenkoppele from the department of hematology at the Free University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, will be the lead investigator of the first MCLA-117 Phase I study.
Company News: Merus Appoints Setareh van Driel Shamsili as Chief Medical Officer
Merus B.V., a biopharmaceutical company focused on innovative human antibody therapeutics, today announced the appointment of Setareh van Driel Shamsili, MD, Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer (CMO).
Setareh van Driel Shamsili has more than 22 years of experience in general medicine, internal medicine and medical oncology. For the past 13 years, she has focused on both translational and clinical cancer research. She has more than eight years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including drug development, R&D, medical affairs, drug safety and pharmacovigilance and holds a PhD in Neuro-Oncology from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Prior to joining Merus, Setareh van Driel Shamsili was Global Medical Leader Oncology at Astellas Pharma Global Development.