BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc is axing the 50 percent contribution it makes to its antibody development and marketing agreement with Amgen Inc. in favor of a deal in which Amgen meets all the costs and, rather than getting a 50 percent share of the profits, CAT receives fees, milestones and royalties.

The reworking of the agreement is another step in CAT's strategy of focusing financial resources on a small number of therapeutic areas, while licensing its technology in other diseases.

Peter Chambré, CEO, said the move allows CAT to retain a significant interest in two antibody candidates it has developed against Amgen targets.

"Over the past 12 months we reviewed our product portfolio with the intention of focusing on a number of core programs - this agreement allows us to do this," he said.

Amgen inherited the collaboration with CAT in its $10.3 billion takeover of Seattle-based Immunex Corp. in July 2002. Under the original agreement signed in May 2001, CAT agreed to discover antibodies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases around two of Immunex's targets, sharing both development costs and profits equally.

Immunex was responsible for all preclinical and clinical evaluation and for commercialization, and that remains the case in the restructured deal with Amgen.

To date, Cambridge, UK-based CAT has delivered one antibody to Amgen, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and said a second will be delivered "in due course."

The change to the deal is CAT's second major restructuring of an existing collaboration in four months. The company in September took the opposite tack in its deal with Genzyme Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., increasing its contribution to a TNF-beta antibody program to 50 percent, in return for a significant increase in its share of the profits.

CAT described the move, in which Genzyme invested £22.9 million to increase its stake in CAT to 11 percent, as part of its strategy of investing in key products in which it can get high value.

The TNF-beta program is focused on fibrotic diseases and scarring, an area in which there is less competition than inflammatory diseases. The lead product in the collaboration is CAT 192, for scleroderma.

For Amgen, bearing the lion's share of the costs of the CAT deal increases its commitment to the anti-inflammatory portfolio it acquired when it took over Immunex. The company in July exercised an option for HuMax-IL-15 from Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, an interest it also acquired through Immunex.