Selexis Enters Into Commercial License Agreement with Merrimack Pharmaceuticals
Geneva, Switzerland, September 18, 2008
Selexis SA, a Swiss-based biotechnology company offering
technologies and services to enable improved drug discovery, development, and cGMP production, announced today
that it has signed a commercial license agreement with Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. an integrated biopharmaceutical
company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. This commercial license agreement provides Merrimack with the
rights to apply a high-performance cell line, generated using the Selexis technology platform, for the cGMP production of
an undisclosed antibody.
“We are pleased that Merrimack is moving forward with a production cell line generated using the Selexis technologies.”
said Dr. Igor Fisch, CEO of Selexis. “We are also very happy that Merrimack continues to expand the use of the Selexis
technologies in the development of stable cell lines for use in their [Merrimack’s] integrated discovery platform through to
cGMP manufacturing.”
About Selexis:
Selexis is a privately held biotechnology company dedicated to the development of innovative technologies and expert
services that enables significant improvements in the time, effort and costs required to develop and maintain high
performance mammalian cell lines for use in the expression of pharmaceutically relevant proteins (i.e. targets, MABs,
rProteins). The company's core intellectual property portfolio is based on the discovery and application of enabling
genetic elements that control the dynamic organization of chromatin within all mammalian cells. Application of the
Selexis Genetic Elements™ using the SURE Cell Line Development process has enabled the rapid development of
high performance cell lines for a number of pharmaceutically important programs. For additional information, please visit
http://www.selexis.com
Selexis Genetic Elements™ and SURE Cell Line Development℠ are trademarks of Selexis SA.
About Merrimack:
Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, design and development of
novel treatments for diseases in the areas of autoimmunity and cancer. Its autoimmune candidate, MM-093, is currently
in Phase 2 clinical development. Its first oncology product, MM-121 is currently in Phase 1 clinical development. MM-093
and MM-121 are investigational drugs and have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any
international regulatory agency. The company's proprietary Network Biology discovery platform, developed with the help
of leading scientists from MIT and Harvard, enables the high throughput profiling of protein networks as a basis for
improved validation, lead identification and speed in the development of innovative therapeutics. Merrimack is a
privately-held company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For additional information, please visit
http://www.merrimackpharma.com.
For more information:
SELEXIS SA
Andrew F. Sandford
Vice President of Business Development
(617) 595-5769
andrew.sanfordATselexis.com