PharmaVentures is pleased to announce that it acted as an adviser to the Baylor Scott & White Research Institute in connection with the creation of Denceptor Therapeutics Limited.

Denceptor Therapeutics will develop immunotherapeutic products to treat cancer and auto immune diseases using Baylor Scott & White Reasearch Institutes’s dendritic cell receptor-targeting antibodies. These antibodies will be humanized using Abzena’s Composite Human Antibody™ technology to reduce unwanted drug immunogenicity. Denceptor Therapeutics will operate as a virtual business and outsource its development and manufacturing activities. Baylor Scott & White Research Institute and Abzena will be amoung the outsourced service providers.

Denceptor Therapeutics has an option to exclusively license antibodies from Baylor Scott & White Research Institute with a sub-license to the humanized versions of the antibodies created by Abzena. The antibodies will deliver antigens to specific receptor on dendritic cells to induce or suppress an immune response in order to treat a variety of cancers and autoimmune diseases.

Nigel Borshell, Vice President, PharmaVentures said: “Collaborations like this are a valuable way of bringing together key technologies and skills so that the whole is greater than sum of the parts. Understanding the value of the contributing parts is key to a successful relationship.”

Fintan Walton, Chief Executive, PharmaVentures said: “We were delighted to be able to provide Baylor with our extensice commercial sector expertise and help them in the establishment of this exciting new venture with Abzena plc.”

The Baylor Scott & White Research Institute is an affiliate of the Baylor Scott & White Health, which conducts over 5 million patient encounters annually, and have 6000 medical staff members and 48 hospitals that are owned, operated, joint-ventured or affiliated.

Abzena (AIM: ABZA) provides proprietary technologies and complementary services to enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products. The Group has a global customer base which includes the majority of the top 20 biopharmaceutical companies as well as large and small biotech companies and academic groups.