Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2017 13:35:43 GMT
MIAMI, Jan. 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (OPK) —OPKO Investee, Zebra Biologics Inc., an emerging biotechnology company of which OPKO owns approximately 28%, announced it has entered into a collaboration with AbbVie to discover agonist antibody therapeutics for inflammatory diseases. Zebra will use its novel and patented function based antibody discovery platform to generate antibodies that activate biological pathways associated with targets designated by AbbVie. Zebra and AbbVie will collaborate closely on the identification and pre-clinical validation of candidates. AbbVie would then be responsible for clinical development, manufacturing, regulatory approval and world-wide commercialization.
About Agonist Antibodies
To date all clinically approved antibody therapeutics exert their effect by blocking (antagonizing) signaling between ligands and receptors or by neutralizing pathogens. Rare antibody molecules may also activate biochemical pathways, although finding such “agonist” antibodies has proven difficult. As demonstrated in key peer-reviewed publications, the recently developed Zebra screening platform opens up a novel biological function-based approach to screening very large combinatorial antibody or other peptidic libraries for potent and highly selective agonist biologic drugs.
About Zebra Biologics
Zebra is a privately held pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. The Company is pioneering the development of platform technologies that allow cellular function-based screening for the discovery and selection of fully human therapeutic biologics (antibodies, peptides or proteins) from DNA-encoded combinatorial libraries of human antibodies, peptides or “protein-in-proteins”. Applicable for lead discovery across all therapeutic areas and all receptor classeOp, Zebra has optimized the platform for the highly desirable feature of allowing selection of rare agonist antibodies from very large combinatorial libraries.
Zebra holds exclusive licenses from the The Scripps Research Institute to both the core platform technology and to current and future candidate therapeutics derived from the platform. Multiple proof of concept examples of the power of Zebra’s platform have been published by the laboratory of Dr. Richard Lerner, a Zebra co-founder and Professor at Scripps, as well as a director of OPKO. Zebra is advancing an internal portfolio of novel full human agonist antibodies and novel highly selective ion-channel blockers.
About OPKO Health, Inc.
OPKO Health is a diversified healthcare company that seeks to establish industry-leading positions in large, rapidly growing markets. Our diagnostics business includes Bio-Reference Laboratories, the nation's third-largest clinical laboratory with a core genetic testing business and a 420-person sales force to drive growth and leverage new products, including the 4Kscore® prostate cancer test and the Claros® 1 in-office immunoassay platform. Our pharmaceutical business features RAYALDEE, an FDA-approved treatment for SHPT in stage 3-4 CKD patients with vitamin D insufficiency (launched in November 2016), VARUBI™ for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (oral formulation launched by partner TESARO and IV formulation PDUFA date: January 2017), TT401, a once or twice weekly oxyntomodulin for type 2 diabetes and obesity which is a clinically advanced drug candidate among the new class of GLP-1 glucagon receptor dual agonists, and TT701, an androgen receptor modulator for androgen deficiency indications. Our biologics business includes hGH-CTP, a once-weekly human growth hormone injection (in phase 3 and partnered with Pfizer), a long-acting Factor VIIa drug for hemophilia (in phase 2a) and a long-acting oxyntomodulin for diabetes and obesity (in phase 1). We also have production and distribution assets worldwide, multiple strategic investments and an active business development strategy. More information is available at www.opko.com.
About Agonist Antibodies
To date all clinically approved antibody therapeutics exert their effect by blocking (antagonizing) signaling between ligands and receptors or by neutralizing pathogens. Rare antibody molecules may also activate biochemical pathways, although finding such “agonist” antibodies has proven difficult. As demonstrated in key peer-reviewed publications, the recently developed Zebra screening platform opens up a novel biological function-based approach to screening very large combinatorial antibody or other peptidic libraries for potent and highly selective agonist biologic drugs.
About Zebra Biologics
Zebra is a privately held pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. The Company is pioneering the development of platform technologies that allow cellular function-based screening for the discovery and selection of fully human therapeutic biologics (antibodies, peptides or proteins) from DNA-encoded combinatorial libraries of human antibodies, peptides or “protein-in-proteins”. Applicable for lead discovery across all therapeutic areas and all receptor classeOp, Zebra has optimized the platform for the highly desirable feature of allowing selection of rare agonist antibodies from very large combinatorial libraries.
Zebra holds exclusive licenses from the The Scripps Research Institute to both the core platform technology and to current and future candidate therapeutics derived from the platform. Multiple proof of concept examples of the power of Zebra’s platform have been published by the laboratory of Dr. Richard Lerner, a Zebra co-founder and Professor at Scripps, as well as a director of OPKO. Zebra is advancing an internal portfolio of novel full human agonist antibodies and novel highly selective ion-channel blockers.
About OPKO Health, Inc.
OPKO Health is a diversified healthcare company that seeks to establish industry-leading positions in large, rapidly growing markets. Our diagnostics business includes Bio-Reference Laboratories, the nation's third-largest clinical laboratory with a core genetic testing business and a 420-person sales force to drive growth and leverage new products, including the 4Kscore® prostate cancer test and the Claros® 1 in-office immunoassay platform. Our pharmaceutical business features RAYALDEE, an FDA-approved treatment for SHPT in stage 3-4 CKD patients with vitamin D insufficiency (launched in November 2016), VARUBI™ for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (oral formulation launched by partner TESARO and IV formulation PDUFA date: January 2017), TT401, a once or twice weekly oxyntomodulin for type 2 diabetes and obesity which is a clinically advanced drug candidate among the new class of GLP-1 glucagon receptor dual agonists, and TT701, an androgen receptor modulator for androgen deficiency indications. Our biologics business includes hGH-CTP, a once-weekly human growth hormone injection (in phase 3 and partnered with Pfizer), a long-acting Factor VIIa drug for hemophilia (in phase 2a) and a long-acting oxyntomodulin for diabetes and obesity (in phase 1). We also have production and distribution assets worldwide, multiple strategic investments and an active business development strategy. More information is available at www.opko.com.