BioWorld International Correspondent

Affitech AS raised NOK86 million (US$13.3 million) in a new round of venture capital to accelerate preclinical development of a pipeline of antibody-based cancer therapeutics.

The Oslo, Norway-based firm has about a half-dozen preclinical antibodies from which it plans to select one or two drug candidates for clinical trials, R&D director Björn Cochlovius told BioWorld International. The cash will enable the company to outsource part of the preclinical work, including animal testing.

In addition, it has collaboration agreements with Viventia Biotechnology Inc., of Toronto, and NatImmune A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark. "With several of these projects we are also in preclinical development," he said.

Affitech's preclinical antibody pipeline, which includes two molecules developed during a collaboration with the Norwegian Radium Hospital in Oslo, were selected using its proprietary Cell-Based Antibody Selection (CBAS) technology, a rapid identification method for selecting tumor-specific antibodies bound to epitopes expressed by living tumor cells. It employs subtractive screening to eliminate known antibodies or markers.

"You find antibodies that are really tumor-specific, with targets that are either not described or not in use," Cochlovius said. "We have generated several antibodies that are absolutely tumor-specific and have no cross-reactivity to normal tissues as far as we can see at this point."

The technology helps the company to sidestep the problem of the lack of availability - or accessibility - of cancer targets. "The crux with oncology is there are only a handful of tumor-specific targets available," Cochlovius said.

Affitech gained one new investor in its latest financing round, Arendals Fossekompani ASA, of Bøylefoss, Norway. Existing shareholders Teknoinvest, Ferd Venture, Four Seasons Venture and Braganza AS also participated.

It was one of the first private equity deals involving an antibody therapeutics firm to be completed following the disastrous UK trial of TGN1412, an anti-CD28 "superagonist" being developed by Wurzburg, Germany-based TeGenero AG. That trial potentially could damage investor perceptions of the entire therapeutic class, Cochlovius said, but it is up to companies to explain to investors, particularly those lacking in scientific expertise, the specifics of the TeGenero trial, including the risks attached to the target and the fact that the company was testing an agonistic antibody.

"The idea of using a therapeutic antibody to turn on a pathway always bears inherent risk" he said. "If you shut something down, the risk is not so big compared with turning something on."