MAbs could alter PDLI core program
Protein Design Labs Inc. acquired from Sandoz Pharma Ltd. and Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp. two human antiviral monoclonal antibodies that will become its lead clinical candidates, as well as the technology to produce them. That technology will be compared to PDLI's own Smart antibody technology and could supplant it as the company's core technology for treating viral diseases. Smart humanized MAbs, which are 90 percent human and 10 percent murine, are likely to remain the focus of PDLI's work in cancer and autoimmune disease, where it's not possible to make human antibodies.
The acquired MAbs, which target cytomegalovirus and hepatitis B, have completed Phase I/II trials in AIDS patients with CMV retinitis and liver transplant patients with end-stage hepatitis B, respectively. PDLI plans to begin a Phase II/III trial of the CMV antibody in late 1993 or early 1994 and a Phase II/III trial of the hepatitis B antibody in 1994. As a result of the acquisition, PDLI is suspending plans to start this year trials of its Smart anti-CMV antibody...