Repligen Corp. has obtained exclusive rights to a broad U.S.patent on antibodies that block inflammation and tissuedamage, the company said Monday.

The company is developing therapeutics based on antibodiescovered by the patent, which was issued to Kabi Pharmacia ABof Sweden, and under another patent licensed from theUniversity of Michigan. Targeted conditions are trauma-induced and septic shock, heart attacks, and other situationswhere return of blood to tissues can trigger the destructivepower of neutrophil white blood cells.

Tissue injury during reperfusion can be prevented byantibodies that bind to sites on activated neutrophils, calledCD18 and CD11b.

The Kabi patent covers use of any antibodies that bind at thetwo sites to prevent reperfusion injury. In January, Repligenobtained a license for the Michigan patent covering use ofantibodies that bind to the CD11b site.

Repligen said it believes the two licenses give it broadprotection and a strategic advantage in the fierce competitionto develop new anti-inflammatories. Walter Herlihy, companyvice president, told BioWorld that "we have one monoclonalantibody in scale-up now, and we expect to start it in clinicaltesting by 1992."

In July, the Cambridge, Mass., company obtained an exclusivelicense from Boston University for the receptor for IL-8. Acytokine produced by white blood cells, IL-8 has beenimplicated in the inflammation of septic shock and adultrespiratory distress syndrome, as well as in chronic ailmentssuch as arthritis and psoriasis.

Repligen stock (NASDAQ:RGEN) on Monday closed at $17, down50 cents.

-- Roberta Friedman, Ph.D. Special to BioWorld

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