Deltagen's product model
With its knockout mouse services business under legal attack by competitor Lexicon Genetics Inc., Deltagen Inc. is executing on the other arm of its strategy, development of products based on secreted proteins. Last week, Deltagen obtained exclusive rights to a target selectively expressed by acute myelogenous leukemia stem cells. The company said it will take the target forward internally as its most advanced program and will consider commercializing any products on its own.
DGEN obtained rights from the University of Kentucky to CD123, the alpha chain of the interleukin-3 receptor that is expressed by leukemic stem cells but not by healthy stem cells. DGEN plans to find a partner to develop an antibody against CD123 that might kill the stem cells, potentially halting the formation of malignant cells in AML...