Tag: Jason Avery
Company News: Merus Granted European Patent on MeMo®, a Transgenic Mouse for Generating the Building Blocks of Therapeutic Human Bispecific Antibodies
– Invention provides unique technology base for therapeutic human bispecific antibodies
– Full-length IgG format of bispecific antibodies facilitates standard manufacturing processes
Merus B.V., a biopharmaceutical company focusing on innovative antibody therapeutics, today announced that it has been granted a European patent on its MeMo® transgenic mouse for the generation of common light chain human antibodies. Using standard industry processes, MeMo®-derived common light chain antibodies can be manufactured in clonal cell lines to efficiently obtain full-length IgG human bispecific antibodies (branded as Biclonics™) for therapy.
“We are very pleased about this important patent as it underlines our unique approach to creating improved antibody therapeutics,” said Ton Logtenberg, CEO of Merus. “MeMo® is distinct from other transgenic mice for human antibodies because the common light chain facilitates co-expression of two antibodies in a single cell to generate functional bispecific antibodies. By screening thousands of bispecific antibodies in cell-based assays, antibody therapeutics with truly superior functional activities are efficiently identified. The full-length IgG format provides for using established, ‘off-the-shelve’ analytical and manufacturing processes which are already in place for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.”
“This is a major accomplishment of Merus,” said Jason Avery, CBO of Merus. “The company has built an exceptional product and technology base for superior therapeutics that combine the benefits of full-length IgG monoclonal antibodies with the ability of simultaneously addressing multiple disease targets. MeMo® is a source of large panels of high quality human antibodies that may be used to rapidly identify bispecific antibody leads. We are offering biopharmaceutical companies worldwide a non-exclusive license to MeMo®. There are no target restrictions and license terms are flexible.”
Company News: Merus Announces the Full Validation of Its MeMo® Transgenic Mouse for Common Light Chain Human Antibodies
Merus B.V., a biopharmaceutical company focused on innovative human antibody therapeutics, announced today the full validation of its transgenic MeMo® mouse for common light chain human antibodies. The MeMo® mouse creates human antibody diversity using a large repertoire of human heavy chains paired with a common human light chain.
“Over the last year, we have immunized MeMo® mice with half a dozen antigens and analyzed the immune response,” said Mark Throsby, COO at Merus. “We are extremely excited by the performance of the MeMo® technology; serum antibody titers as well as size, diversity, functionality and developability of antibody panels are comparable to those of wild type mice.”
“In MeMo®, a single human light chain drives the generation of a normal B cell compartment as well as supports a robust immune response,” said Ton Logtenberg, CEO and founder of Merus. “The large and diverse panels of high-quality human antibodies that we retrieve from MeMo® show that this platform is comparable to the best-in-class transgenic platforms using diversified heavy and light chains.”
Because of the common light chain, MeMo®-derived antibodies can be immediately used to rapidly generate thousands of bispecific antibodies (Biclonics™) and combinations of antibodies (Oligoclonics®) for functional screening. Merus has shown that the quality and diversity of common light chain antibodies drives the success of identifying Biclonics™ with unprecedented potencies for application in oncology. The MeMo® mouse is available for licensing.
Company News: Merus Announces Appointment of Jason Avery as Chief Business Officer
Merus B.V., a biopharmaceutical company focused on multispecific human antibody therapeutics, announced today that Jason Avery has been appointed as Chief Business Officer.
With a professional background as Head of Business Development at Affitech A/S and Chief Business Officer at Cambridge Antibody Technology, Jason Avery brings extensive industry experience to Merus.
“Jason comes to Merus with a wealth of experience in Business Development, in particular in the antibody space, and we are delighted to have him join the team,” said Dr Ton Logtenberg, CEO of Merus B.V. “As our multispecific human antibody platforms have matured and consistently yield lead candidates for clinical development, Jason’s expertise will be invaluable to reach our ambitious business goals.”
“Merus is one of the most impressive companies in the antibody technology and product space,” said Jason Avery. “The combination of MeMo®, the common light-chain transgenic mouse, and Merus’ antibody format technology facilitates unprecedented ease in the discovery, development and manufacturing of bispecific antibodies. I look forward to progressing the commercial success of Merus´ discriminative pipeline of owned and partnered antibody products. I am very excited to be joining such an experienced management team.”