GlycArt's's success with glycosylated therapeutic proteins

RoSearch Article, December 2005

Sweet success

Scientists at GlycArt are working on glycosylated therapeutic proteins

‘We’ve developed a method of achieving stable overexpression of glycosyltransferase genes in antibody-producing cell lines,’ says Pablo Umaña, GlycArt's’s Chief Scientific Officer, explaining what his company’s GlycoMAb technology does. Using GlycoMAb, sugar groups are attached to antibodies in patterns making the antibodies roughly 50 times more attractive to the immune effector cells (natural killer cells and macrophages) that seek out and destroy antibody-marked targets such as cancer cells and microbial pathogens. This modified glycosylation process increases the affinity of antibodies for Fc.RIIIa, a receptor on the surface of immune effector cells.
In addition to its GlycoMAb technology platform, GlycArt has five therapeutic antibodies in development for solid and hematologic cancers and autoimmune diseases.

‘We started GlycArt as a spin-off from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in September 2000, together with Prof. James Bailey,’ explains GlycArt's CEO Joël Jean-Mairet. ‘Our research collaboration with the scientists at Roche Penzberg dates from September 2004. In March 2005 we received a tender offer from a company, and in May we started looking around for a potential buyer.’ Roche purchased GlycArt on 19 July 2005 for 235 million Swiss francs, at the same time acquiring the rights to GlycArt's patents. By January 2006 GlycArt's 27 staff will all have Roche employment contracts. GlycArt is already an important part of Roche’s Therapeutic Protein Initiative. Pablo Umaña has been appointed Head of Operations for the initiative and reports to Prof. Klaus Strein, Head of Pharmaceutical Research in Penzberg.

About GlycArt Biotechnology AG

GlycArt is a privately held Swiss biotechnology company focussed on the development and commercialisation of a new generation of antibody products based on its proprietary GlycoMAb technology. GlycArt has generated its own GlycoMAb-based antibody portfolio by in-licensing and acquiring antibodies at early stages of development and applying GlycoMAb to them. GlycArt’s current focus is on next-generation antibody therapeutics against well-characterised and clinically validated targets, but the company is also taking advantage of its broad technological capabilities in antibody humanisation, expression and screening. GlycArt was founded in 2000 as a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, and is located in Zurich-Schlieren. Since its inception, the firm has been backed by a broad investment syndicate consisting of Novartis Venture Fund, GLSV, Gilde, DVC, ABN AMRO Capital, Quester and BioMedInvest.
GlycArt has been acquired by Roche in July 2005.

About GlycoMAb

GlycoMAb is a fully developed technology platform that efficiently increases the specific biological activity of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for target cell ablation. It is based on an active modulation of antibody glycosylation during production leading to antibody products with increased ADCC (antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity). A high relevance for therapeutic efficacy, industrial scale applicability, broad patent protection and an extensive body of proof (including external validation) are the distinctive hallmarks of this technology.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a supplier of innovative products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people’s health and quality of life. Roche is a world leader in diagnostics, the leading supplier of medicines for cancer and transplantation and a market leader in virology. In 2004 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 21.7 billion Swiss francs, while the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 7.8 billion Swiss francs. Roche employs roughly 65,000 people in 150 countries and has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai. Additional information about the Roche Group is available on the Internet at www.roche.com.

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