CAT Catco Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Limited

RNS No 8202u
CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY GROUP PLC
18th December 1997

Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc and ICOS Corporation Announce Research
and Product Collaboration

Cambridge Antibody Technology ("CAT") (LSE : CAT) and ICOS Corporation
("ICOS") (NASDAQ : ICOS), announced today that they have signed a
collaborative agreement to develop jointly antibody-based therapeutics to
treat diseases and conditions such as inflammation, cancer and allergy.

ICOS will contribute certain intellectual property, biological information and
expertise relating to six targets, that may be well suited for antibody
therapy.  CAT will contribute antibody engineering expertise, together with
the use of its proprietary target validation and discovery technologies,
including the ProxiMol(TM) platform.  The parties intend to develop jointly
antibody-based human therapeutics and to discover novel associated drug
targets.  CAT and ICOS will each bear their own costs in the research stage,
and will seek to develop commercialisation strategies that share development
costs, and the value derived from the collaboration, equally.

In addition, ICOS will access CAT's proprietary antibody engineering platform,
the Antibody Engine(TM), to select and engineer lead clinical antibody
candidates for two undisclosed targets.  CAT will receive development funding
and, potentially, development milestones and royalties.

"This collaboration with ICOS significantly enhances CAT's access to
proprietary disease targets, and provides the potential to strengthen further
our product pipeline", said Dr. David Chiswell, Chief Executive Officer of
CAT.  "Importantly, this collaboration with ICOS underpins the launch of our
new ProxiMol(TM) platform, part of our suite of powerful functional genomics
tools."

"By combining the discovery work initiated at ICOS with the human antibody
engineering expertise at Cambridge Antibody Technology, we have a fine
opportunity here to accelerate product development", commented Dr. George
Rathmann, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICOS.

CAT is a biotechnology company, based in the United Kingdom, which is
developing a diverse portfolio of antibody-based human therapeutic products.
Its product development programmes include potential treatments for
inflammatory disorders, fibrosis and fibrotic diseases, cancer, and obesity.
CAT's foundation is a world-leading platform technology for the
high-throughput isolation of human monoclonal antibodies.  The technology's
speed and capacity make it particularly valuable in the field of functional
genomics. 

ICOS is discovering and developing new pharmaceuticals by seeking points of
intervention in the inflammatory process that may lead to specific and
efficacious drugs.  ICOS' research and drug development programs include both
acute and chronic conditions such as acute respiratory distress syndrome,
acute pancreatitis, asthma, haemorrhagic shock, male erectile disorder,
multiple sclerosis, myocardial infarction, and psoriasis.  The Company has
Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials active in seven indications.

For further information please contact:

Cambridge Antibody Technology            01763 263 233

David Chiswell     Chief Executive Officer   
John Aston         Finance Director 

Ludgate Communications                   0171 253 2252

Andrew Nicolls  
                    
Notes for Editors:

Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc

CAT floated on the London Stock Exchange in March 1997, raising #41 million. 
CAT's business is based on a world leading platform technology for the rapid
isolation of human monoclonal antibodies. This technology has applications
both in the development of antibody-based human therapeutic products and as a
drug discovery tool, particularly in the context of functional genomics.

CAT's strategy is to capitalise on the strength of its platform technology in
order to build a diverse portfolio of antibody-based human therapeutic
products.  Clinical trials of two human monoclonal antibodies developed by CAT
have already started in 1997.  Phase I/IIa Trials of CAT's anti-TGFb2
monoclonal antibody in patients with early proliferative vitreo retinopathy
have recently commenced, and earlier this year Phase I/IIa trials of human
anti-TNFa monoclonal antibody isolated and developed by CAT in collaboration
with Knoll (BASF) were initiated by Knoll in patients with rheumatoid
arthritis.  CAT's partner, Techniclone, announced recently that it had
received FDA allowance to begin Phase I Clinical Trials with a radiolabelled
chimaeric TNT antibody for the treatment of malignant glioma (the most common
primary malignant brain tumour).

CAT has already entered into a number of licence and collaborative agreements
with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.  These include: technology
licenses with Genentech, Pfizer and Eli Lilly; therapeutic antibody licenses
with Knoll (BASF), Knoll (BASF)/Genetics Institute and Mitsubishi Chemical;
joint ventures with Techniclone and ObeSys (with BTG); and a licence agreement
with Integra Life Sciences.

The speed and capacity of CAT's platform technology make it particularly
valuable in the field of functional genomics, in which biological meaning is
extracted from the mass of raw sequence data being created by research into
the human genome.  In the last year, the CAT(TM) Library has more than
quadrupled in size and now incorporates over 67 billion distinct antibodies. 
The quality of CAT's antibody phage libraries underpins both its functional
genomics and product development strategies.  

ProAb(TM) and ProxiMol(TM) are new technologies developed by CAT.  ProAb(TM)
is the name given to a proprietary approach to building a database of
information on the biological and disease relevance of novel genes.  In the
same way that genomics companies can sequence every gene in the human genome,
CAT can select antibodies against the protein or peptide encoded by each and
every gene and partial gene sequence.  The ProAb(TM) approach is to screen
such antibody probes against a panel of normal and diseased tissues, in a
high-throughput manner, identifying 'guilt-by-association'.  This allows CAT
researchers to focus resources on those protein targets, out of the many
thousands listed in genomics databases,  that have relevance in a particular
disease state.   ProxiMol(TM) is so called because it identifies antibodies
that bind to other molecules in close proximity to an original protein target.
It is used for orphan ligand or receptor matching, elucidation of novel
protein - protein interactions, and for identifying the functional epitopes of
a protein target.  

ICOS Corporation

ICOS Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company founded to develop novel drugs
for the treatment of chronic and acute inflammatory conditions.  The Company
was co-founded in 1989 by Dr. George Rathmann, founder, former Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer, and currently Chairman Emeritus of Amgen, now the
largest biotechnology company in the world.  One of ICOS' principal scientific
strengths is its expertise in cell and molecular biology, and it is renowned
for the quality of its scientific staff and management.

ICOS employs approximately 250 people, of which 88% work in research and
development.  At 11 December, 1997 ICOS had a market capitalisation of
approximately US$660 million.

The Company's objective is to target the earliest stages of the inflammatory
process, seeking points of intervention which may lead to more specific and
efficacious drugs.  The primary strategy is to identify therapeutic targets
through a broad understanding of underlying mechanisms and molecular entities
involved in inflammatory processes.  ICOS believes this strategy will lead to
new biological and small molecule pharmaceuticals which may be used to treat
diseases.

ICOS Development Programmes

Hu23F2G is being evaluated in four Phase 2 clinical trials for acute
exacerbations of multiple sclerosis, haemorrhagic shock, ischemic stroke and
myocardial infarction.  Hu23F2G is a humanised monoclonal antibody that has
been shown to bind to CD11/CD18 on the surface of white blood cells and to
block subsequent movement into the surrounding tissue.

Two Phase 2 clinical trials with the recombinant form of a naturally occurring
human enzyme, PAF-AH, are underway in ARDS and asthma.  PAF-AH converts a
potent pro-inflammatory mediator, platelet-activating factor, to a
biologically inactive form thereby limiting its effects.  Additional Phase 2
trials are being planned in pancreatitis.

Early this year, a Phase 1 clinical trial was initiated with a humanised
monoclonal antibody, called ICM3, in patients with severe psoriasis.  ICM3 has
been shown by ICOS scientists to block the function of human ICAM-3, a protein
known to facilitate the interactions between two immune cell types, T-cells
and antigen presenting cells.

ICOS is positioned to begin Phase 2 trials this year with IC351, a PDE-5
inhibitor, for the treatment of male erectile dysfunction.  This is a novel
phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitor that regulates intracellular signal
transduction thereby effecting the dilation of blood vessels.


END

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