Washington Editor

In yet another deal in which a large pharmaceutical maker has sought to boost its development pipeline by taking over a biotechnology firm, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has acquired Scottish biotech Haptogen Ltd. No terms of the deal were disclosed.

Wyeth said its acquisition of Haptogen "significantly increases" its biotechnology drug discovery capabilities. "We consider the opportunity to conduct biopharmaceutical drug discovery in Scotland particularly important because of the rich pool of scientific and technological talent," said Frank Walsh, executive vice president of discovery for Wyeth Research.

Wyeth's acquisition of the Scottish firm, Steven J. Projan, vice president and head of biological technologies for Wyeth Research, said it demonstrates that the Collegeville, Pa.-based pharmaceutical company is willing to "go where the tech and the talent are" to expand the company's development pipeline.

"We are willing to go the extra mile," he said by phone from Scotland, hours after the agreement had been signed. Wyeth will retain Haptogen's personnel, Projan said, adding that the Scottish firm's co-founder, Andrew Porter, chairman of molecular and cell biology at the University of Aberdeen, will act as a "key consultant" for Wyeth.

Haptogen, founded in 2002 as a spinout of the University of Aberdeen, has focused its activities on developing antibodies against bioactive haptens, the smallest of all small molecules, and against the haptenic structures found on larger targets.

The biotech also has been involved in pioneering novel drug discovery techniques using the immune system of sharks, Projan said.

Because shark antibodies are the smallest antibodies found in the animal kingdom, Haptogen's shark platform "has a lot of potential to generate smaller therapeutic proteins that can be taken as oral drugs," Projan said. Shark antibodies, he added, "also have the ability to penetrate the blood-brain barrier."

Sharks have possibly the most robust immune system of all species, and their antibodies are hoped to be a source for potent drugs to fight bacterial infections, viruses and tumors.

Prior to the acquisition of Haptogen, Projan said, Wyeth was involved in aiding research activities in Scotland as a founding member of the Translational Medicine Research Collaboration, a public-private partnership involved in identifying the underlying biology of diseases. The partnership, formed in 2006, includes four Scottish universities in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow; regional boards of the National Health Service; and Scottish Enterprise, a government agency dedicated to inward investment in the country.

Wyeth is contributing $50 million over the first five years of the project, Projan said, adding that Scottish Enterprise is contributing $80 million.

Wyeth has 10 staff members engaged in the project, which is housed at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, he noted.