Merck KGaA and Biolex Therapeutics form antibody optimisation partnership

Merck Serono – a division of Merck KGaA – and Biolex Therapeutics have announced a new collaboration that will see the companies work together to evaluate antibody optimisation and production in Biolex’s proprietary LEX system.

The partnership will evaluate the ability of the LEX system to improve therapeutic profiles through optimisation of antibody glycosylation structures.

Jan Turek, president and chief executive officer at Biolex, indicated that antibodies were the fastest-growing class of therapeutics in the pharmaceutical sector and that glycosylation could play a “significant role” in their therapeutic profile.

He added: “We are pleased to work with Merck Serono, a leader in biologics, to investigate the potential benefits that can be achieved by linking their novel antibody candidate with the glycosylation optimization capabilities of the LEX System.”

Biolex has engineered its LEX system to produce antibodies with a fully human glycosylation structure without fucos.

The company presented preclinical results associated with LEX System optimisation at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Haematology.

Also this week, Merck KGaA and Takeda Pharmaceutical announced that they have opted to cease their joint development of matuzumab as a result of the clinical findings relating to the compound to date.