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The founders of San Diego's second-largest biotech company have launched a sister operation that has attracted international attention for its promising method of producing monoclonal antibodies --biological building blocks for many medical diagnostic and therapeutic products.
Joseph and Anthony Sorge of Stratagene Cloning Systems, a La Jolla company with over 500 products on the market and $15 million in annual revenues, recently announced a spinoff venture called Stratacyte Corp.
The wholly owned subsidiary, formed two weeks ago and seed-financed with $1 million from Stratagene, will commercialize a new method of making monoclonal antibodies, said Joseph Sorge, Stratagene chairman and chief executive officer.
Monoclonal antibodies are genetically engineered clones of antibodies, the cells in the immune system that fight infection.
Not since Hybritech Inc., the first company to produce monoclonal antibodies, has a local company's technology shown so much promise both medically and financially, researchers and industry experts claimed.
"It's pretty hot stuff," said Howard Birndorf, one of Hybritech's founders and now president of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. "It will cut down time and costs considerably. And the technology provides the ability to make specific monoclonal antibodies -- and in great quantities. It'll be like having a library where you can choose the antibody you desire."
Potential markets in both areas are estimated to be in the billions of dollars, Birndorf said.
Over the past year scientists from Stratagene and the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic, led by Richard Lerner, have been developing the new process that can clone vast quantities of antibodies much...