Humanized antibodies and Queen's patents

PDL BioPharma, Inc (PDLI) and Humanized Antibodies

 In industry (Pharma and biotech), humanized antibodies seems to be the direction many companies are taken. What is a humanized antibody? Well, it is usually a monoclonal antibody made in a non-human. The peptide sequence of the antibody has been modified to be more “human-like”, so that when you use it for treatment in cancer for example, it will not trigger your own immune system  to attack.  This is big, because this means you can create a lot of this antibody in a mouse or a larger animal for that matter, at a lower cost and it is more likely to work in humans. This little company PDL Biopharma was a head of the group in that it has already licensed and is receiving royalties of their product.
I don’t know what they are going to do in the long run, but right now they are sitting pretty collecting royalties! The most recent one I saw in the news is from Reuters “PDL Biopharma Inc to receive royalties on sales of Genetech’s Pertzumab (http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/PDLI.O/key-developments/article/2559431 ).

Second Opinion Weekly reported it upgraded as of 8 days ago to “Long” and “Improving”. Thomson Reuters Stockreport gives it a positive rating of 9 out of a scale of 1-10.  Interesting it even has a dividend associated with it J

PDL BioPharma, Inc. (PDL) is a biotech company. PDL is engaged in the management of antibody humanization patents and royalty assets, which consist of its Queen et al. patents and license agreements with various biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The Company receives royalties based on sales of humanized antibody products marketed and may also receive royalty payments on additional humanized antibody products launched before final expiry in December 2014. It has entered into licensing agreements with numerous entities that are independently developing or have developed humanized antibodies under which it has licensed certain rights under its Queen et al. patents to make, use, sell, offer for sale and import humanized antibodies.  (Compliments of Scottrade)

-JR

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