ShangPharma and Harbour Antibodies Announce Licensing Agreement
SHANGHAI, Sept. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — ShangPharma Corporation (NYSE: SHP) (“ShangPharma” or the “Company”), a leading China-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development outsourcing company, and Harbour Antibodies (“Harbour”), a Dutch biotechnology company, today announced that they have entered into a collaborative licensing agreement under which ShangPharma will develop therapeutic antibody candidates for its customers using Harbour’s transgenic mouse-based fully human antibody development technology.
Harbour will provide ShangPharma with human immunoglobulin-gene transgenic mice for use at the Company’s Shanghai facility, where researchers will provide fully human antibody development services to ShangPharma’s pharmaceutical clients. The Harbour transgenic mice licensed under the agreement produce H2L2 IgG antibodies, comprising two heavy chains and two light chains, with fully human variable regions.
“We are delighted to be working together with Harbour to introduce this pioneering antibody technology in China for the first time,” said Michael Xin Hui, Founder and CEO of ShangPharma. “We are proud that Harbour sees the value of our services and has chosen to draw upon the strength of ShangPharma’s biologics R&D capabilities.”
Dr. Chengbin Wu, Vice President of Biologics at ShangPharma, added, “This partnership with Harbour is a major step forward both for ShangPharma and also for the development of therapeutic antibodies in China. We are excited to combine Harbour’s industry-leading technology with the strength of our research teams to develop medicines that have the potential to improve the quality of treatment for patients.”
Prof. Frank Grosveld, Co-founder and Director of Harbour, said, “We are delighted to partner with ShangPharma to expand client access to one of our transgenic mouse antibody discovery platforms. The use of transgenic mice draws upon the natural immune response and has proved to be a very reliable route to discovering potential human antibody-based medicines. There is a need for new transgenic mouse platforms to meet the continuing clinical need for therapeutic antibody discovery. The Harbour transgenic mouse platform meets this need.”
About ShangPharma Corporation
ShangPharma Corporation (NYSE: SHP) is a leading China-based contract research organization providing high-quality and cost-effective services for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. It offers a broad range of high-quality, integrated services across the drug discovery and development process to help international and Chinese pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies discover and develop novel drug candidates efficiently. ShangPharma’s services consist of discovery chemistry, discovery biology and preclinical development, pharmaceutical development and biologics services. For more information, please visit www.shangpharma.com.
About Harbour Antibodies
Harbour Antibodies BV was founded in 2006 as a company to commercialise transgenic mouse human antibody platforms being developed at the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the largest medical center in the Netherlands. Harbour licenses broadly across the pharma/biotech industry, and provides academic collaborators access to the transgenic mouse antibody platforms under MTA. In addition to the derivation of human H2L2 antibodies, transgenic mouse platforms have been developed for the derivation of novel human heavy chain only antibodies (HCAbs), soluble human VH domains and VH domain antibody complexes for use both as research tools and to meet unmet clinical need. The proprietary transgenic mouse platforms are protected by filed and granted patent applications in the major and the expanding healthcare markets. Further information can be found on the company’s website at www.harbourantibodies.com.
Safe Harbor: Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this announcement may be viewed as “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual performance, financial condition or results of operations of the Company to be materially different from any future performance, financial condition or results of operations implied by such forward-looking statements. The accuracy of these statements may be impacted by a number of business risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. The Company undertakes no ongoing obligation, other than that imposed by law, to update these statements.
For further information, please contact:
ShangPharma Corporation
William Dai
Chief Financial Officer
E-mail: IR@shangpharma.com
Brunswick Group
Josh Gartner
E-mail: shangpharma@brunswickgroup.com
Phone: +86-10-5960-8600
SOURCE ShangPharma Corporation