i2 Pharmaceuticals acquires antibody and protein engineering technology portfolio from Sea Lane Biotechnologies.
i2 Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on next generation discovery and development of therapeutics with a focus on personalized cancer treatment, announced the acquisition of all of the antibody and engineered protein technology of Sea Lane Biotechnologies, LLC, Redwood City, CA, including several potential product candidates.
The acquisition consists of three distinct classes of protein therapeutics, including world-class human antibody libraries, human b-cell derived antibodies, and a new class of engineered protein therapeutics called Surrobodies. Surrobodies allow for the facile creation of bispecific therapeutic agents from vast arrays of monospecific agents. In addition, this new class of protein can be readily transformed by coupling small molecule drugs to Surrobodies to create Surrobody Drug Conjugates (SDC’s), the next generation in potent cancer therapeutics.
“We are now uniquely positioned with protein, small molecule and RNA therapeutic modalities that can be mixed and matched to innovate beyond the traditional boundaries of drug discovery with a goal of developing next generation, highly efficacious, cost effective personalized therapeutics,” said Dr. Bruce Eaton, i2’s founder, chairman and CEO.
In particular, Eaton pointed to the antibodies and Surrobodies developed by Sea Lane for Immuno-Oncology (IO) that complement existing programs at i2 Pharma in the development of cancer therapeutics.
“The Surrobody technology was created as an alternative to conventional antibody based approaches, with the potential for a wide range of protein engineering advantages,” said Richard Lerner, the Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry and former president of The Scripps Research Institute. “The Sea Lane Biotechnologies team and their commercial and academic partners clearly demonstrated the power of the Surrobody technology for many applications including multi-specific and drug conjugate formats. With this acquisition, i2 Pharmaceuticals now has a compelling portfolio of Surrobody and antibody product candidates and technologies to add to its other exciting capabilities.”
(Source: PR Newswire)
