Phadia AB, Germany, which specializes in autoimmunity and allergy testing, has deployed a series of HuCAL-based recombinant antibodies in its autoimmune tests Varelisa™ and EliA™. AbD Serotec, UK receives license fees and will supply Phadia with recombinant antibody material.
The two companies first collaborated in 2005, merging Phadia’s experience in developing, manufacturing, and marketing of complete blood test systems and AbD Serotec’s HuCAL recombinant antibody technology. AbD Serotec is MorphoSys‘s division for research and diagnostic antibodies.
"Phadia has a long track record in using advanced techniques such as recombinant gene technology to produce a wide range of precise and reliable diagnostic tests for autoimmune diseases," said Stefan Eschbach, the company’s VP. "The use of recombinant control antibodies was shown to increase the accuracy and reproducibility of diagnostic tests. AbD Serotec’s ability to generate these highly-specific recombinant antibodies in various formats using the HuCAL technology has been extremely helpful in this regard."
AbD Serotec has generated a series of recombinant antibodies in the IgA, IgM, and IgG1 format, which Phadia will implement in its marketed autoimmune tests Varelisa, a classical ELISA-microtiter platform, and EliA, the fully automated system for the measurement of autoantibodies. The set of recombinant HuCAL antibodies act as recombinant-control antibodies and replace human serum to standardize autoimmune assays.
"(The) news marks the first market entry of a clinical diagnostic kit comprising a HuCAL antibody," said Simon Moroney, MD, and CEO of MorphoSys. "This development is a significant step forwards for recombinant antibody technology in the diagnostics field, and a major operational milestone for our AbD unit."
Autoimmune diseases include juvenile diabetes, various forms of rheumatism, hepatitis, thyroiditis, and a variety of skin diseases. Early diagnosis can improve treatment options and increase patients’ quality of life, but since early symptoms—especially of systemic autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid disorders—can be diffuse, and years may pass from the onset of the disease until a correct diagnosis is made.
Phadia develops, manufactures, and markets complete blood-test systems to support the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of allergy, asthma, and autoimmune diseases.
MorphoSys is biotech company that generates fully human antibodies to discover and develop antibody-based drugs to treat life-threatening diseases. The company has forged therapeutic and research alliances with many international pharmaceutical companies, such as Boehringer Ingelheim, Centocor/Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, and Roche.
