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
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