Boehringer Ingelheim and Xencor announce new collaboration

Boehringer Ingelheim has entered into a new alliance with Xencor on the development of new biosuperior monoclonal antibodies.

The collaborative alliance will utilise Xencor's protein design automation platform technology Xtend, which is capable of creating antibodies with increased half-lives.

Boehringer Ingelheim will provide all manufacturing and product supply from the preclinical stage through to phase I development, while Xencor will be responsible for preclinical and clinical studies.

Development and commercialisation rights to all products created under the agreement will be retained by Xencor, though Boehringer Ingelheim holds certain manufacturing rights to supply clinical and commercial material.

Simon Sturge, corporate senior vice-president at Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals, said: "We are delighted to start this collaboration with Xencor. It reflects one of our new business models in contract manufacturing, in which both parties are enabled to focus on their core competencies."

Earlier this month, the company announced another new alliance with GWT and the Technische Universitat Dresden, which will focus on studies into the causes of diabetes.