big rise on announcement?

07-FEB-2003 FRI 08:48 PEPTECH LIMITED FAX NO. 98898088 P, 01
PEPTECH
ABN 118 002 951 S77
AUSTRALIAN STOCI( EXCHANGE
Att Company Announcements Office
FAX NUMBEk 1300 300 021 llllll~IYlllllllllllllalllil~lillllYIU
PTD000350
DATE: February 7,2003
NUMBER OF PAGES: 2 (incl this page)
FROM: Niall Henderson
Peptech Limited
Suite 2, Level 3, Building A, 11 Ta:l.avera Road
North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia Nor
(Locked Bag 2053, North Ryde NSW 1670)
Tel: +61(0)2 9870 8788 Fax: +61 ('0)2 9889 8088
E-mail: nhendw@,nwtacb.com
Dear Sir
Attached is an announcement for release to the market.
Yours sincerely
Niall Henderson
Company Secretary
07-FEB-2003 FRI 08:49 PEPTECH LIMITED . . -- .- . FAX NO. 98898088 P, 02
ASX Announcement and Media Release
Date: 7 February 2003
UOMANTIS PRESS RELEASE ON GRANT OF PATENT
Domantis Limited, the company in which Peptech will hold a 36.1 % intwest, made the following
announcement yesterday in relation to the granting of a patent in the USA in pioneering protein selection
technology.
Patent
"Domantis has Exclusive Rights to Pioneering Protein Selection Technology which Gains US
Cambridge, UKand USA, 6 February, 2003... Domantis Limited, tho leading Domain Antibody (dAbJ
drug discovery company, has strengthened its technologyposition for I'he selection ofantibodies and
antibody fragments following the grant of US Patent Number 8,489,10,:3. Domantis has field-exclusive
rights from the UKs Medical Research Council (MRCJ to thrs pioneerirlg emulsion technology, which
offers significant advantages over existing methodologias.
The emulsion technology enables users to extract specific genes which encode proteins with desirable
activities from large pools of gene sequences. For the isolation of anti1:rodie.s this is traditionally achieved
by animal immunization or by in vitro selection technologies such as pi$age display. Unlike phage
selection, the new technique does not use bacteria or cells, or require repetitive and time-consuming
laboratorytasks such as centrifugation and overnight culture. The emi.llsion technology has the potential
to be automated for high throughput efficiency and maximum canvenienm.
Domantis Chief Scientific Officer and CO-Founder /an Tomiinson said, 'This technology takes us one step
closer to the ideal scenario of entering a chosen antibody target at on(!, end of a machine and retrieving a
binding dAb at the other. The invention underlines the quality of the pioneering work undertaken at the
Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMBJ and Centre for Protein
Engineering (MRC-CPEJ in Cambridge, UK, where the emulsion technology is being researched and
developed. Should the work that Domantis is funding continue on track we plan to integrate the
technology into our drug discovery efforts and commercialise it througlh licensing deals and development
of automated antibody selection instrumentation.'
The new technology is based on a water-in-oil emulsion which compslrtmentalises genes and their
products into an entity which behaves like an arfificialceil. It was invmtad by DrsAndrew Griffiths and
Dan Tawfik of the MRC-LMB, both of whom are consultants to Domantis. The grant of the US patent
complements the corresponding UKpalent (UK-2342094) and an Awtralian patent (AU736836). which
were granted in October 2002 and November 2001 respectively The patent family is managed by the
MRC. Domantis has exclusive commercial rights to this intellectual pmperty for the fields of antibodies,
antibody fragments and T mllreceptws. MRCretains rights to license outside of these fields.
For further information please contact:
STEPHEN KWlK
MANAGING DIRECTOR
PEPTECH LIMITED
Ph (02) 9870 8788
Dr PAUL SCHOBER
INVESTOR RELATIONS
PEPTECH LIMITED ~ -. . . -~ ~ . .
Ph (02) 9870 8788