By Lisa Seachrist

Washington Editor

Medarex Inc. and Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd. have formed a strategic alliance for the global commercialization of technology enabling the creation of fully human monoclonal antibodies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Tokyo-based Kirin will pay Medarex $12 million in up-front fees, as well as additional fees for technology access over the length of the alliance. As a result of the agreement, Kirin will be the exclusive distributor of Princeton, N.J.-based Medarex's HuMAb-Mouse technology in Asia. Medarex will become the exclusive distributor of Kirin's Transchromosomic Mouse technology outside of Asia.

"This alliance gives Medarex a broad platform on which we can provide human antibodies to our partners," said Michael Appelbaum, executive vice president of finance and administration of Medarex and president of GenPharm, the HuMAb-Mouse division of Medarex.

The companies will exchange broad licenses to each other's technology and pay each other royalties and milestones as novel therapeutics are developed.

Medarex's HuMAb mice are genetically engineered to contain human genes for making antibodies. Kirin's Transchromosomic mice contain the full complement of human genes needed to create antibodies with the mouse genes functionally deleted.

The companies expect to use the technologies to develop therapeutic antibodies to treat cancer, heart disease, infectious disease and autoimmune disease, among other disorders. The technologies will be available to academic institutions, as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Medarex's stock (NASDAQ:MEDX) closed Monday at $43.187, up $6.937, or about 19 percent.