Pfizer has paid an upfront fee of $30m for non-exclusive worldwide rights to Xoma's patented bacterial cell expression technology, gaining access to use the system for phage display and other research, as well as development and manufacturing of antibody products.
Xoma will also receive milestone payments and royalty fees on future sales of all products subject to the license, including products currently in late stage clinical development.
Pfizer is just the latest major pharma to pick up on Xoma's antibody discovery and development platform, with over 40 other companies having signed licenses to gain access to the company's bacterial cell expression (BCE) technology.
Biologics is a key area of future growth for Pfizer, who appears to be expanding rather rapidly in a bid to make sure it has the resources available to exploit this booming field and be a contender in the burgeoning biopharma market.
The BCE technology that Pfizer has banked on to help establish itself in the biopharma field is touted as an enabling technology for antibody discovery and production, and with fellow licensees in the form of Merck & Co, Genentech and Genzyme among others, Pfizer would appear to be in good company.
Genentech's drug Lucentis (ranibizumab) for wet age-related macular degeneration was in fact the first product manufactured under a license using Xoma's BCE technology, and was approved in the US in June 2006 with EU approval following in January of this year.
Worldwide sales of Lucentis over the second quarter of 2007 totalled $285m, with the drug representing the major contributor to the $4.3m in royalties earned by Xoma over Q2.
Cimzia (certolizumab), an anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha antibody fragment developed by UCB is another late stage drug produced using Xoma's BCE technology, and has been submitted for regulatory approval for Crohn's disease.
Xoma has mammalian and microbial expression technologies in its portfolio designed to increase product yield. The company's microbial production system produces high level expression of recombinant proteins in E. coli, and both the mammalian and microbial systems utilize Xoma's proprietary vectors, cell lines, animal product-free media and protocols.
That Pfizer is pushing ahead with it biologics plans comes as no surprise. Biopharmaceuticals is the fastest growing sector in the industry, with biologic drugs expected to make up a significant portion of pharma firm portfolios within a matter of years.
Only last week US-PharmaTechnologist.com covered the expansion of Pfizer's biologics R&D site in Chesterfield, Missouri, a $50m investment that will effectively double the size of the facility.
The company is also toying with the idea of a small scale biologics manufacturing plant in Ireland, though is being very cagey regarding concrete plans for the site in Shanbally.
Pfizer's first therapeutic monoclonal antibody is due to be launched in the next year, according to a company representative talking at this month's Drug Discovery and Development of Innovative Therapeutics (DDT) conference in Boston, an anti-cancer treatment that will target the CTLA-4 receptor.
By 2009, the company hopes that biologic drugs will make up 20 per cent of its portfolio.
