NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – ExonHit and Genmab today announced an agreement for the selection of novel splice variants that may have potential as therapeutic targets for breast cancer.
Under the terms of the agreement, Genmab retains exclusive development and commercialization rights to 10 events from a breast cancer database developed using ExonHit's genome-wide SpliceArray technology, ExonHit said in a statement. The 10 are sequences indicative of alternative splicing events in targets "suitable for developing antibody-based therapeutics," the company said. Genmab retains those sequences for further characterization.
Genmab also has first negotiation rights on epitopes that may be characterized by ExonHit from the data resulting from its work on the 10 sequences. ExonHit keeps full rights on all uses of the breast cancer database, which includes more than 2,700 RNA sequences that are expressed specifically in breast cancer tissue. About 400 sequences may lead to new epitopes for antibody discovery in the treatment of breast cancer, the company said.
The splice variants covered by the agreement were part of a pilot study that demonstrated the ability of the SpliceArray platform to identify novel target candidates for breast cancer treatment, ExonHit said.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.