WuXi PharmaTech and Open Monoclonal Technology (OMT), a provider of novel transgenic animals for development of human therapeutic antibodies, have entered into an agreement to use OMT’s OmniRat to develop therapeutic antibody candidates for commercialization by WuXi’s global customers.
 
According to the companies, the OmniRat technology generates fully human antibodies with great specificity, affinity and manufacturability and eliminates time-consuming humanization of traditional mouse-derived antibodies.
 
“OMT’s OmniRat technology allows WuXi to expand its service offerings in discovery of fully human antibodies,” said Edward Hu, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of WuXi PharmaTech. “Providing discovery, development and manufacturing services for novel therapeutic antibodies represents an important new global business initiative for WuXi. We are investing heavily in building our capabilities and capacity in biologics services, which we expect to be a key driver of revenue growth for our company in the coming years.”
 
Dr. Roland Buelow, founder and chief executive officer of OMT, said, “The collaboration with WuXi further advances OMT’s efforts to deploy its human antibody platform globally. Under the collaboration, OMT can leverage WuXi’s expertise and capacity to create novel therapeutic candidates for its biopharmaceutical customers and apply OMT’s technology to an ever-broadening base of drug candidates.”