Abgenix Completes Acquisition Of Immgenics
FREMONT, Calif. – November 6, 2000 – Abgenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: ABGX) announced today the completion of its previously announced acquisition of ImmGenics, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company located in Vancouver, Canada. Abgenix will exchange approximately US$77 million (CAN$110 million) of its stock for all of ImmGenics shares and options. The transaction closed today after approval by both companies’ boards of directors, shareholders and by Canadian regulatory authorities.
ImmGenics’ technology involves screening antibodies directly from antibody-producing B cells rather than from hybridoma cell lines. This provides a much larger pool of candidates than are available with traditional hybridoma technology. ImmGenics’ technology provides access to the complete immune response for the identification of antibodies with the desired functional properties and highest affinities. Abgenix estimates that this difference is between 100 and 1000 fold. In addition to providing greater antibody diversity, eliminating the hybridoma generation step will allow Abgenix to shorten product development timelines.
Abgenix is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of antibody therapies for a variety of diseases. The company developed XenoMouse™ technology to enable the rapid generation of high affinity, fully human antibody product candidates to essentially any disease target appropriate for antibody therapy. Abgenix uses its XenoMouse technology to build a large and diversified product portfolio through the establishment of licensing arrangements with multiple pharmaceutical, biotechnology and genomics companies and through the development of its own internal proprietary products
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