Oxford BioTherapeutics Licenses Lonza's GS Gene Expression System

Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd and Lonza recently announced a non-exclusive license agreement providing OBT with access to Lonza’s GS Gene Expression System. The agreement covers the research, development, and commercial use of the GS System by OBT and contains standard payments and license fees that have not been disclosed. Licensing of the GS Gene Expression System expands OBT’s access to world-class technologies for its maturing pipeline of therapeutic antibodies in oncology, and demonstrates its commitment to strengthening both antibody production and preclinical capabilities.

“We are delighted to have access to Lonza’s GS Gene Expression System as an addition to our technology portfolio,” said Tom Boone, who recently joined OBT as Senior Vice President, Protein Sciences following 28 years at Amgen. “The speed and ease of use of the GS System will aid the rapid selection of high-producing cell lines and accelerate the production and development of our most promising anticancer agents.”

“We are proud to have our GS Gene Expression System contribute to Oxford BioTherapeutics innovation in cancer research,” said Janet White, Head of Development Services. “We look forward to supporting OBT’s efforts to expand and develop its pipeline of promising new oncology drugs.”

The GS Gene Expression System, which is owned and licensed by Lonza, is used for the production of therapeutic recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies. Nearly 100 biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and over 75 academic laboratories worldwide are successfully using the GS Gene Expression System, which has established itself as the industry standard. This system is characterized by its speed and ease of use. In addition, the higher yielding cell lines provide cost-efficient production of therapeutic proteins.

The Oxford Genome Anatomy Project (OGAP) database represents the world’s largest proprietary collection of disease-associated proteins. OGAP oncology contains proteomic data on 5,000 cancer membrane proteins combined with their genomic and clinical information derived from human blood and cancer tissue studies. OGAP contains proprietary target information on three quarters of the entire human proteome. Over 1 million human protein fragments have been sequenced in OGAP in 50 different human tissues representing 60 diseases, including 25 forms of cancer covering 17,000 different genes and over three quarters of all human proteins and genetic variants in over 8 million SNPs and haplotypes.