Regeneron partners with Mount Sinai on new antibody drugs
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. will provide its proprietary technology and potential financial support in a new partnership with Mount Sinai”™s Icahn School of Medicine aimed at speeding the discovery of fully human antibodies to treat diseases targeted by Mount Sinai investigators.
Officials at Regeneron headquarters in Greenburgh and the Experimental Therapeutics Institute at the Mount Sinai medical center in Manhattan jointly announced the agreement, whereby ETA will do preclinical research on monoclonal antibodies ”“ antibodies made by identical immune cells cloned from a single parent cell ”“ and Regeneron has an exclusive option to license the antibodies for clinical drug development and commercialization.
Regeneron and Mount Sinai scientists said monoclonal antibodies have become an important new class of drugs in recent years. They can disrupt disease progression by blocking cell receptors or interfering with cell-to-cell transmission. Regeneron”™s VelociImmune, a genetic engineering platform, enables fast and efficient creation of fully human antibodies using  genetically altered laboratory mice.
Drew Murphy, senior vice president of research at Regeneron Laboratories, said the agreement “brings together Mount Sinai”™s deep biology and clinical expertise and Regeneron”™s unique antibody technology” within the “rapidly maturing New York bioscience ecosystem.”
Paul Kenny, director of the Experimental Therapeutics Institute, called the collaboration with Regeneron “a unique opportunity to develop medications based on the cutting-edge research at Mount Sinai, ultimately helping to improve health outcomes and quality of life for many people.”