Icosagen and AbCheck Announce Five-year Licensing Agreement Granting AbCheck Access to Icosagen’s Patented Mammalian Expres...

 

Tartu (Estonia) and Plzen (Czech Republic) June 3, 2019 - Icosagen Cell Factory OÜ, a rapidly growing Estonian biotechnology company focusing on protein production and in vivo antibody discovery, and AbCheck s.r.o., a leader in  providing antibody drug  discovery,  engineering  and  optimization  services  to  the  biotech  and pharmaceutical  industry, today announced that they have entered into a five-year licensing agreement granting AbCheck access to Icosagen’s QMCF protein production technology. Under the terms of the agreement, AbCheck will acquire rights to utilize Icosagen’s QMCF technology platform for its commercial activities in antibody discovery.

“AbCheck’s and Icosagen’s partnership has a long history, and the licensing agreement is a natural next step in our collaborative effort to bring maximal benefits to our academic and industry partners and customers,” said Icosagen’s CEO Prof. Mart Ustav.

“Adding Icosagen’s unique QMCF protein production technology to our portfolio of versatile in vitro and in vivo technology solutions will allow us to increase the efficiency of characterizing the large numbers of antibodies we typically discover for our partners”, added AbCheck’s Managing Director Dr. Volker Lang.

About QMCF TechnologyThe QMCF technology is a new conceptual method of combining several biological elements to produce proteins for early-stage drug development processes. The technology provides an advantage compared to existing technologies, in crucial aspects, such as timeline, stability and cost-effectiveness. In addition, it is applicable to the development of test-systems for drug target screening, large-scale protein production, etc. The QMCF Technology was developed by Icosagen Cell Factory OÜ during the period 2005-2008. The development of the technology was financed by Enterprise Estonia. The technology has been granted a patent in Europe, US, Canada, Japan and Australia.

About Icosagen Cell Factory OÜIcosagen Cell Factory is a research-driven contract research provider for biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries that deftly adapts to market forces and current trends, and is always guided by the needs of its customers. Icosagen Cell Factory OÜ was established in 2005, the company belongs to Icosagen Group.

About AbCheck s.r.o.AbCheck s.r.o. discovers and optimizes human antibodies leveraging several proprietary platforms including in vitro and in vivo technologies as a service to our partners. We use phage/yeast display libraries (AbSieve®), mass humanization and antibody optimization (AbAccel®) to provide high quality leads. Our technology platform can be used in conjunction with all antibody designs and allows selection of optimized leads from a huge number of variants. Flexibly adapting to our partners’ needs, we offer a variety of business models, including deals without royalties. AbCheck has proven its capabilities in multiple partnerships throughout the US and Europe. AbCheck is a wholly owned subsidiary of Affimed GmbH. For more information, please visit https://abcheckantibodies.com.

Contact Information:

Icosagen

Meelis Kadaja, Director of Business Development E-mail: [e-mail]

AbCheck

Dr. Volker Lang, Managing DirectorE-mail: [e-mail]