Genmab

Genmab's technology is licensed from Medarex to create fully human high affinity antibodies using transgenic mice. These antibodies are less likely to elicit an allergic reaction and other side effects compared with other types of man-made antibodies containing other animal proteins because the IgG antibodies produced have human proteins. This technology is called the HuMab-Mouse technology. One benefit of using this type of technology is that there is no need for humanization or complicated genetic engineering to make this antibody fit for humans which cuts down on expenses and time spent developing it. It can be generated within months and can be selected to bind to specific antigens such as tumor cells and other infectious agents.

Genmab also has developed its own technology called UniBody, which is used to make smaller antibodies in contrast to the traditional full sized monoclonal antibody. Its smaller size allows for better distribution over larger target areas like tumors. The UniBody can only bind to one site and doesn’t elicit a harmful immune response by binding to two sites and over-activating cell growth. It does not kill target cells but rather silences or inhibits them. Thus it can be used to treat certain cancers, inflammations, allergies and asthmas, where killing the cell isn’t the objective.[9]

The technology modifies the human IgG4 antibody. Normally the IgG4 is considered inert and doesn’t elicit an immune response. However, they are also unstable and fall apart easily, which makes them unsuitable for therapeutic use. Genmab changes the shape of the IgG4 antibody by eliminating the hinge, the part of the antibody that creates the “Y” shape. This halves the antibody, creating a smaller version now known as their UniBody. This smaller version can only bind to one site and does not stimulate cancer cells to grow.[10]

Genmab was founded as a European spin-off of American Biotech company Medarex in February 1999. Danish investment firm BankInvest, under Florian Schönharting, provided the seed investment for the company to start up in Copenhagen. Like Medarex, Genmab began work producing monoclonal antibodies for life-threatening or debilitating diseases. Rising quickly in the Biotech world, Genmab attracted many investors, especially venture capital firms. The company went public in October 2000, earning DKK 1.56 billion, and had a second public offering in January 2006 yielding DKK 800 million.

The company's initial R&D location was a nine-story building in Utrecht Science Park, in the Netherlands; this was replaced with an "R&D Center" also in Utrecht, in June 2018.[4] By mid-2019, this new facility was at capacity, and plans were set afoot to build an adjacent, connected facility.[4]

By 2001, Medarex and Genmab had come back together in a drug development partnership, which highlighted the manufacturing deficit and clinical development expertise of Genmab relative to Medarex.[11]

In 2005 the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and the Long Island Life Sciences Initiative honored Genmab with a James D. Watson Helix Award.[12]

2008 saw the company purchasing a 22,000-litre, 36-acre antibody manufacturing plant in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from PDL BioPharma, with plans to retain all 170 employees thereat.[4][13] However, the company ran into financial trouble originating from several quarters, and a decision to sell the facility was reached in late 2009, after Genmab had started producing development scale batches from the facility.[4] In 2008, the world was experiencing a financial crisis as a whole, and GlaxoSmithKline decided to exit oncology, which impacted co-development of ofatumumab, an oncology-directed product.[4] In tandem with the sale of the plant, the company reorganized and planned to dismiss about 300 employees.[4] Selling the facility, though, proved very difficult, due in large part to the global financial crisis; by 2012, Genmab had decided to simply write-off the entire facility from the company's balance sheets.[4] A sale of the facility to Baxter came in February 2013.[4]

Following the failed strategy of in-housing manufacturing, Genmab chose to thereafter completely outsource both manufacturing and the conduct of clinical trials.[4]

The Company's first product, Arzerra (ofatumumab) reached the US market in 2009 for refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.[14]