BioWa, Inc. of Princeton, NJ (USA) and Lonza Pharma & Biotech of Basel (CH) today announced that they have entered into a licensing agreement with Tillotts Pharma AG of Rheinfelden (CH). The licensing agreement is of high strategic importance as it brings Tillotts one step further toward the goal of successfully developing a new antibody-based therapy for the treatment of people with gastrointestinal (GI) diseases.

Tillotts has licensed the companies’ POTELLIGENT® CHOK1SVTM Cell Line Technology for use in the research and development of its proprietary antibody TP10, part of Tillotts’ global pipeline. Antibodies produced by this cell line exhibit enhanced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and can exert potent cytotoxic effects even when their target antigen is expressed at low levels. In addition, they are active in whole blood and retain all other desirable features of non-glycoengineered antibodies.

Johannes Spleiss, Chief Scientific Officer at Tillotts, commented, “With this license agreement, we continue to build a strong technology base for our biologics development activities; and we are pleased that we can now incorporate Biowa’s/Lonza’s validated knowledge into TP10, our most advanced antibody therapy in development for certain GI indications.”

The POTELLIGENT® CHOK1SVTM is a host cell line for manufacturing recombinant antibodies that combines the power of BioWa’s engineered glycosylation POTELLIGENT® Technology with the advantages of Lonza’s industry-leading GS Gene Expression System™. The GS System™ includes Lonza’s pre-eminent host cell line, CHOK1SVTM. The POTELLIGENT® CHOK1SVTM Cell Line retains the features of a high-producing cell line (robust, high-yielding and scalable) with the advantage of a proven bioprocess platform for the CHOK1SVTM Cell Line.

“The POTELLIGENT® Technology has been recognized as a global standard technology for the enhancement of ADCC in therapeutic antibody research and development as evidenced by our parent company, Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. (Kyowa Hakko Kirin) and our licensed partners,” said Takeshi Masuda, President and CEO of BioWa. “We are extremely pleased to have a new, innovative biopharma partner such as Tillotts to provide additional value to its antibody pipeline of GI candidates.”