Astellas Pharma licenses Regeneron antibody discovery technology

Astellas Pharma has announced that it has entered into a non-exclusive agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals that will permit the firm to use that company’s VelocImmune technology for the discovery of human monoclonal antibody candidate drugs in its internal research programmes.

Under the terms of the deal, Astellas will pay Regeneron an initial fee of $20 million (10.1 million pounds), with a further five annual payments of the same amount to be paid, though the agreement may be terminated after the first three years.

Furthermore, Astellas will pay Regeneron a mid-single-digit royalty fee on product sales relating to this technology.

George D Yancopoulos, chief scientific officer of Regeneron, described the VelocImmune platform as the focus of the company’s technology for the discovery and development of fully-human monoclonal antibodies.

“We are pleased that Astellas, a company with a clear strategic commitment to developing therapeutic antibodies, has selected the VelocImmune platform for its internal development programmes,” he said.

Astellas commented that the technology would become a key part of the firm’s research and development capabilities, with the company aiming to build a new platform for the development of antibody drugs.

In January 2007, Astellas announced that it had entered into a license and research and development agreement with Kirin Brewing relating to a fully-human anti-CD40 antagonistic monoclonal antibody.