CAT Catco Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Limited

RNS No 8290p
CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY GROUP PLC
23rd March 1998

CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY AND PROGENITOR 
FORM BROAD GENE-TO-CLINIC COLLABORATION 

Deal Involves Rapid Discovery and Development of Novel Drug Targets using
Antibody-Based Functional Genomics 

Melbourn, UK and Menlo Park, CA -- Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc
(LSE: CAT) and Progenitor, Inc. (Nasdaq: PGEN, PGENW) today announced that
they have entered into a broad collaboration that allows both companies to
accelerate their respective product development programs by sharing elements
of each other's technologies. 

Progenitor will give CAT access to novel genes as targets for antibody-based
therapeutics, while CAT will provide Progenitor with powerful new
antibody-based functional genomics tools to characterize its gene discoveries
from its own programs.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Progenitor will initially
supply CAT with a diverse and extensive portfolio of molecular targets from
its gene discovery programs in asthma, inflammation, hematopoiesis (blood cell
formation), and angiogenesis (blood vessel formation) related to cancer and
cardiovascular disorders.  CAT will develop target-specific antibodies, which
the companies will use to evaluate the function and validate the therapeutic
significance of these genomic targets.

CAT and Progenitor will bear their own costs for each joint research program
undertaken, and the two companies will share data and intellectual property. 
CAT will have the first right to develop and commercialize antibody-based
products and Progenitor will have the first right to develop and commercialize
non-antibody-based products.  The parties will pay each other certain
late-stage milestone and royalty payments.

CAT will also develop antibody reagents for additional Progenitor proprietary
gene discoveries and for protein expression profiling of these genes. The
companies together will determine whether to undertake further joint research
programs relating to these additional Progenitor targets.

"We believe that CAT's ProAb(TM) and ProxiMol(TM)  technologies in the field
of functional genomics, combined with Progenitor's expertise in developmental
biology and disease genetics, provide a valuable source of novel gene targets
and biological information to fuel product opportunities for both companies,"
said David Chiswell, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of CAT.  "We believe that
CAT's platform offers the fastest route from gene to therapeutic products."

CAT's proprietary antibody engineering technologies enable rapid development
of human monoclonal antibodies with specific properties. The agreement
provides both companies multiple product development opportunities through
joint research programs and the exchange of certain biological and clinical
information, intellectual property and expertise.

"This collaboration greatly expands our functional genomics capabilities, and
provides an unprecedented opportunity to move numerous gene discoveries
quickly through target validation and into drug development programs.  The
agreement also creates for us multiple royalty opportunities in human
therapeutic antibodies, a product category that we otherwise may not have
pursued at this time," said Douglass B. Given, M.D., Ph.D, President and Chief
Executive Officer of Progenitor.

In addition, the companies announced that they have initiated a jointly owned
program to develop and commercialize novel antibody-based therapeutics using
Progenitor's 'leptin receptor' gene discovery. The leptin receptor has been
recognized as an important target for the development of new treatments for
obesity, diabetes and other disorders.  Progenitor and CAT will jointly
conduct the leptin receptor program and will share equally all program costs
and revenues. 

"CAT is the ideal partner for exploiting the therapeutic rights we retained in
an earlier leptin receptor license agreement," said Progenitor's Dr Given. "We
fully intend to explore all possible applications of this important asset." 

For further information, please contact:

Cambridge Antibody Technology                                   01763 263 233
David Chiswell       Chief  Executive  Officer       
John Aston           Finance Director

Progenitor Inc                                               001 650 614 7005
Douglass B. Given    President & Chief Executive Officer

HCC De Facto Financial                                          0171 957 4600
Nicola How

HCC De Facto Cambridge                                          01223 518 093
Andrew Worsfold

Notes for Editors :

Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc

CAT is a UK biotechnology company with a world-leading technology for the
rapid isolation of human monoclonal antibodies. CAT is using this technology
platform to develop a broad portfolio of antibody-based human therapeutic
products. The technology has further application as a drug discovery tool,
particularly in functional genomics.

The first two antibody products developed by CAT started clinical trials in
1997, in inflammation and fibrosis. CAT plans to develop a portfolio of
clinical development programmes with the objective of initiating three to four
clinical programmes per year from the year 2000.

CAT has entered into a number of licence and collaborative agreements with
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. These include: ICOS, Genentech,
Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Knoll (BASF), Knoll (BASF)/Genetics Institute, Mitsubishi
Chemical, Techniclone and ObeSys.

CAT is based on the Melbourn Science Park, 10 miles south of Cambridge,
England and currently employs over 120 people, many of whom are PhD
scientists. In March 1997 CAT completed its initial public offering and
listing on the London Stock Exchange raising approximately #41 million.

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 disease associated proteins -
"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.  

Progenitor, Inc

Progenitor discovers and develops genomic leads and targets for new
pharmaceuticals using a unique technology platform that combines developmental
biology and disease genetics to identify, characterize and utilize key genes
responsible for health or disease.  Progenitor's genomic discoveries provide
multiple product opportunities which the company pursues through a combination
of partnerships, licenses and retained rights for internal product development
programs.



END

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