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BioWa, Inc.

BioWa, Inc. Licenses Anti IL-5 Receptor Antibody from Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Princeton, New Jersey (ots/PRNewswire)

BioWa announced today
that it has successfully licensed from Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd.
(Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo: 4151), its parent company,
the exclusive worldwide rights, except Asia, to develop and
commercialize anti IL-5 receptor antibody, a potential new asthma
treatment.
Under the terms of the agreement, BioWa expects to develop and
commercialize anti IL-5 receptor antibody, which is currently in late
pre-clinical development, in the US and Europe. In return, Kyowa
Hakko Kogyo Co. has an option to develop and commercialize the
product in Asia and will be responsible for all development
activities and costs. Under the terms of the agreement, BioWa retains
all rights to anti IL-5 receptor antibody in non-Asia countries. Each
party has the right to use pre-clinical and clinical data generated
by the other party for developing anti IL-5 receptor antibody in
their respective territories.
The anti IL-5 receptor antibody is designed using BioWa's
Potelligent(TM) Technology and will be the first antibody of the
BioWa pipeline to enter human trials. "Obtaining the development and
commercialization rights to anti IL-5 receptor antibody is a
significant step for BioWa's technology platform, demonstrating our
commitment to building a pipeline of Antigen Dependent Cellular
Cytotoxicity (ADCC) enhanced therapeutic products, and positions
BioWa as a key player in asthma therapeutics," said Dr. Nobuo Hanai,
President and CEO of BioWa. "We believe that ADCC enhancement of
antibodies will overcome many existing problems of antibody
therapeutics today. We are pursuing the discovery and development of
high value proprietary therapeutic products through the use of
Potelligent(TM), our core technology."
About Potelligent(TM) Technology
The human body has an excellent self-defense mechanism, the immune
system where antibodies are created to protect the body from diseases
when foreign organisms like pathogenic bacteria enter the body.
Therapeutic antibodies are based on or are designed to make full use
of the body's own defense activity.
ADCC activity is the most critical function of the human immune
system. With this activity, white blood cells such as NK cells and
monocytes kill target cells like cancer cells. ADCC activity is the
major anticancer mechanism of already launched therapeutic antibodies
on the market today. Enhancing this activity is in the spotlight
worldwide as the next-generation antibody technology.
Potelligent(TM) Technology involves the complete elimination of
fucose from the carbohydrate structure of an antibody.
Potelligent(TM) derived antibodies enhance antibody performance
overall. Studies have shown that Potelligent(TM) cells enhance ADCC
up to 100 fold in vitro. The benefits of Potelligent(TM) derived
antibodies are greater tumor cell killing activity than with
conventional antibodies, potential for an expanded base of responding
patients, reduced side effects with decreased dose requirements, and
no change in key clinical parameters, i.e., selectivity,
pharmacokinetics , and immunogenicity. Research shows that
Potelligent(TM) Technology dramatically enhances binding affinity to
the Fc receptor.
Potelligent(TM) Technology is an easy fit with conventional
production and purification methods. Due to the effectiveness of the
technology, production costs and capacity requirements decrease.
About anti IL-5 receptor antibody
The IL-5 receptor is expressed predominantly on the surface of a
class of white blood cells known as eosinophils. These are one of
several types of white blood cells that act to combat infection.
However, in a more negative action, eosinophils have been implicated
as the major cause of problems in the lung associated with
non-allergic asthma. The anti IL-5 receptor antibody is being
developed to reverse the debilitating effects of non-allergic asthma
by acting to eliminate eosinophils that accumulate locally in the
lung. Treatment with the antibody is expected to reduce if not
eliminate the typical symptoms (coughing, shortness of breath, etc.)
associated with asthma.
About Non-Allergic Asthma
Currently there is no effective treatment for non-allergic asthma
sufferers. The potential for anti IL-5 receptor antibody is expected
to gross over US$500M worldwide peak sales. The number of patients
affected by asthma is growing significantly. The asthma market is
predicted to increase from the current US$12B to over US$19B
worldwide by year 2009.
About BioWa, Inc.
BioWa is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd.,
Japan's leading pharmaceutical and largest biotech company. BioWa is
the exclusive worldwide licensor of Potelligent(TM) Technology.
Potelligent(TM) Technology creates high antibody-dependent cellular
cytotoxicity (ADCC) monoclonal antibodies. ADCC is a critical
function of the immune system that enhances the ability of antibodies
to kill tumor cells. The enhancement of ADCC is seen up to 100 fold
in vitro. BioWa is currently developing ADCC enhanced monoclonal
antibody-based therapeutics to fight cancer, asthma and other
life-threatening and debilitating diseases and both BioWa and Kyowa
have Potelligent(TM) antibody products in various clinical stages.
BioWa creates and develops enhanced ADCC antibodies for itself and
others, offering a full range of antibody discovery and development
capabilities. For more information about BioWa visit its web site at
http://www.biowa.com.
Potelligent(TM) is the registered trademark of Kyowa Hakko Kogyo
Co., Ltd. All rights are reserved.
Web site: http://www.biowa.com

Contact:

Nobuo Hanai, Ph.D., President and CEO of BioWa, +1-609-580-7500,
x7501 or Martina Molsbergen, Senior Director, Business Development,
BioWa, +1-609-580-7500, x7382