Laureate and AVEO Pharmaceuticals To Produce MAb Therapeutic

Laureate Pharma, Inc. (Princeton, NJ) has entered into a development and manufacturing agreement to produce AV-203, AVEO Pharmaceutical’s (Cambridge, MA) monoclonal antibody targeted against ErbB3. Laureate’s services will include process development, protein production, purification, and aseptic filling of AP-203 for AVEO. Laureate expects to supply AVEO with clinical product in the second quarter of 2011. Terms of the manufacturing agreement were not disclosed.

AV-203 is an ErbB3 (HER3)-targeted antibody. ErbB3 belongs to a family of four proteins that also includes the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the HER2 receptor. Both EGFR and HER2 have been implicated in promoting the growth of significant numbers of tumors, particularly in breast and lung cancers. Drugs blocking the activity of EGFR have demonstrated clinical benefit in lung, colon, and head and neck cancers, while drugs targeting HER2 show clinical benefit in the treatment of HER2 over-expressing breast cancers. ErbB3 is significantly over-expressed in many human breast, ovarian, prostate, colorectal, pancreatic, gastric, and head and neck cancers, which generally correlates with poor prognosis.