Laureate enters agreement with AVEO to produce AV-203 monoclonal antibody against ErbB3

Laureate Pharma, Inc., a full-service contract development and manufacturing organization, announced today that they have entered into a development and manufacturing agreement to produce AV-203, AVEO Pharmaceutical's (Cambridge, MA) novel monoclonal antibody targeted against ErbB3.  Laureate's services will include process development, protein production, purification and aseptic filling of AP-203 for AVEO.  The project is presently underway and Laureate expects to supply AVEO with clinical product in the second quarter of 2011.  Terms of the manufacturing agreement were not disclosed.

"AVEO has a very impressive pipeline of monoclonal antibody-based products for treatment of cancer and we are pleased to work with them on this exciting antibody product," said Steve Johnson, Vice President, Business Development, of Laureate Pharma.  "We look forward to a productive and successful relationship with AVEO to provide clinical supply of their monoclonal antibodies."

AV-203 is an ErbB3 (HER3)-targeted antibody. ErbB3 belongs to a family of four proteins that also includes the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the HER2 receptor. Both EGFR and HER2 have been implicated in promoting the growth of significant numbers of tumors, particularly in breast and lung cancers. Drugs blocking the activity of EGFR have demonstrated clinical benefit in lung, colon and head and neck cancers, while drugs targeting HER2 show clinical benefit in the treatment of HER2 over-expressing breast cancers. ErbB3 is significantly over-expressed in many human breast, ovarian, prostate, colorectal, pancreatic, gastric, and head and neck cancers, which generally correlates with poor prognosis.