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When is a Target Not a Target?

Medarex is reevaluating its plans to bring 10 antibodies into the clinic each year, in part because targets identified by its array of young partners are taking a lot of work to validate. The company has gained appreciation for vaccines and for the potential of using antibodies as general immune stimulants rather than specifically targeted therapeutics.

"The promise of medicine in the post-genomic world is still as exciting as ever," declares Don Drakeman, CEO of Medarex Inc. , but he reckons that "probably some of the early industry-wide enthusiasm for mapping the genome and getting new targets slid over a lot of blocking and tackling that has to be done." As head of a company leveraging rights to basic means of producing therapeutic antibodies, Drakeman is on the front line, trying to move forward into a space that is still coming into being.

Like Abgenix Inc. , which effectively shares a duopoly with Medarex on technology for making mice with human immune...

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