Antigenics Inc. moves into new Lexington facility - Boston Business Journal:

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The company, with corporatee offices in New York and a smaller manufacturinyg facility in Framingham that will closethis won't need all of the 22,000-square-foog building immediately. But the company's co-founderf said Antigenics will double its work force this growing from 20 scientists and technicians to 40 by the endof 1998. The four-year-ols company is developing a differen t style of treatments for infectious diseases and otherserious disorders. The potentiao products are based on the ability ofthe company's technologu to activate the body's immune system to fightf the disorders.
"It addresses some of the majort shortcomings of existing cancer treatments that cancer is a variable disease from one individuakl tothe next," said Garo chairman and chief executive officefr of the company. "Individuakl cancers of the same type even have thei r own unique fingerprintand it's difficult to targetr such a variable disease with one [standard] Instead, Antigenics' products use heat shock proteina to boost the signal of which activate antibody responsex in the body. The louder signal basicalluy awakensthe body's immune system and order s it to attack cancerous cells.
The company has three product in Phase I clinical A treatment for pancreatic cancer is beinb tested at theMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York whil e two others, for melanoma and renao cell carcinoma, are under way at MD Andersonm Cancer Center in Houston. "The immune response woulsd target specificallythat patient's cancer [insteadf of relying on generic treatments for cancer]," Armenm said. "You can program the immuns system to targetthat patient's own cancer as opposed to hopingv for that generic immune response. So in we have a specific product foreach person." Armen co-founded Antigenics Inc.
in 1994 with Pramoed Srivastava, the researcher of the company's technologuy and director of the Center for Immunotherapy of Cancer and Infectiouz Diseases at the University of Connecticuyt School of Medicinein Farmington, Conn. At the time, the companyt raised $400,000 and hasn't had difficulty finding financiak backers. One reason for the success is Armen'sx other business. He serves as managin g general partner of ArmenPartners LP, an investment partnership specializing in publivc and private health care investments. The group hasn'f invested in Antigenics, but Armen has put his own cash and connectionsx to work raising funds forthe company.
Antigenicds is close to securinga $30 million round of private financing, the fourth capital boost in as many Other rounds of financing brought in $1.5 million in 1995 and $10.6 million in 1996. "Ther interest has been very Armen said. "We think, based on our current projects, that it will last the next three The company hasbeen very, very efficient. We accomplishefd a great deal with relativelymodest expenditures." Antigenics is also developingv a treatment for infectious diseases. The heat shocik protein technology may also be used ina drug-deliveryt system that could be the foundation of a companyt that may be spun off Antigenicsx in the next year.
Antigenics' corporate headquarterw will remain inNew York, Armen adding that the company is keeping its shop in Massachusettzs to continue an existing deal with anotherd company, PerSeptive Biosystems Inc. of and to take advantage of the area's labor pool.