By Karen Pihl-Carey

Applied Molecular Evolution Inc. will use its DirectAME directed evolution technologies to develop four antibodies for Bio-Management Inc. (BMI) in a collaboration worth about $17 million.

The four antibodies were discovered by Peter Brooks of the University of Southern California and are exclusively licensed to BMI, of Los Angeles. They specifically inhibit the growth of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, by novel mechanisms.

In the collaboration, AME will humanize and optimize the antibodies to decrease their immunogenicity, while increasing their affinity.

"I think it's a very good fit between our expertise in humanizing antibodies and their knowledge of the mechanism of angiogenesis," said William Huse, CEO and chief scientific officer for AME.

San-Diego based AME, formerly called Ixsys Inc., will receive research funding covering two to four antibodies, as well as milestone payments and royalties on marketed products.

"The value to us doesn't depend on the near-term cash payments," Huse told BioWorld Today, "but rather in the mutual benefit in creating value over the longer term."

Huse could not disclose the percentage of royalties AME will receive.

Brooks and other scientists, including those from the University of California, San Diego, will contribute to the preclinical and clinical development of the antibodies.

AME changed its name from Ixsys earlier this month to better reflect its core platform technology based on directed evolution, the process of subjecting DNA to a rapid evolutionary process in the test tube.

In February 1999, Ixsys entered into a collaboration potentially worth $50 million with MedImmune Inc. to develop four monoclonal antibodies. The collaboration's lead product was Vitaxin - a humanized monoclonal antibody developed by Ixsys. It is in Phase II trials for the treatment of cancer by inhibition of angiogenesis. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 26, 1999, p. 1.)

Huse said MedImmune plans to move Vitaxin into trials in rheumatoid arthritis soon. The four antibodies involved in AME's collaboration with BMI will be "useful everywhere Vitaxin is," Huse said. "It's two sides of the same interaction."