| Neihu, Taiwan and Tsukuba, Japan (January 25, 2010). | | | | Huang, President and CEO of Abnova. "We look |
| National Institute for Environmental Studies and the | | | | forward to working closely with Dr. Kuwana and his |
| Abnova Corporation have signed a Memorandum of | | | | team to fully explore all aspects of the technology |
| Understanding (MOU) on a joint research relating to | | | | including its throughput and cost for commercial |
| the use of chicken primordial germ cell (PGC) for | | | | adaptation." This collaboration provides great |
| protein and monoclonal antibody production. The | | | | opportunity to leverage the resource of both parties |
| technique for obtaining germline chimeras from | | | | coinciding an unparallel opportunity in the |
| primordial germ cell has been established in chicken. | | | | biopharmaceutical industry. |
| This collaboration is intended to address the | | | | "We are pleased to enter into this collaboration with |
| commercial applicability of transgenic chicken as a | | | | Abnova with expertise and keen market insight on |
| robust and efficient bio-factory for biopharmaceutical | | | | monoclonal antibody and protein application in |
| manufacturing which represents an essential | | | | preclinical discovery and research. Abnova has now |
| bottleneck in cost, time, and scalability in current drug | | | | taken on the more advanced step of biologic |
| development, and especially in the post NDA, scale-up | | | | manufacturing with the use of chicken PGC for the |
| production prior to commercialization. | | | | creation of germline chimera and then transgenic |
| As the world's largest manufacturer of reagent | | | | chicken for large-scale of biopharmaceuticals," says |
| antibodies and proteins for the research market, | | | | Dr. Takashi Kuwana, Director of the National Institute |
| Abnova has taken a key initiative to identify | | | | for Environmental Studies. "Chickens have several |
| alternative production platforms for the | | | | advantages over the mammalian transgenic |
| biopharmaceutical market. "The primordial germ cell | | | | counterparts including high productivity in eggs, |
| technology pioneered by Dr. Takashi Kuwana has | | | | efficient breeding, similarity of protein glycosylation, |
| provided a strong foundation in cell culture and | | | | and absence of prion problem. While the feasibility of |
| transgenic chicken development to catapult a new | | | | such approach for individual proteins have been |
| era of biopharmaceutical and biogeneric manufacturing | | | | demonstrated in research setting, stable generation |
| in the face of growing list of expired and soon-to-be | | | | of transgenic chicken for a diverse collection of |
| expired protein drugs and early generation of | | | | biologics has not been thoroughly investigated. We |
| antibody drug, and a rich pipeline of new monoclonal | | | | anticipate valuable data and information to be |
| antibodies currently in clinical trials," stated Wilber | | | | generated from this collaboration. |