Pfizer has purchased a company that develops technology to optimise antibodies to help it identify and develop new drugs with improved properties.

Bioren, a privately held company based in California, was acquired for an undisclosed sum in a move that gives Pfizer access to its Walk-Through Mutagenesis and Look-Through Mutagenesis technologies to improve the development of drugs from antibodies.

Antibodies are proteins used by the immune system to identify and neutralise foreign objects like bacteria and viruses. Pharmaceutical companies use antibody optimisation technologies to help them develop drugs with improved properties, such as greater or longer lasting efficacy.

The therapeutic proteins market is predicted to expand to more than $50 billion by 2010. In addition to the acquisition of Bioren, Pfizer has made significant investments over the last five years to develop a portfolio of therapeutic proteins and other macromolecules.

One such macromolecule is Exubera, the inhaled insulin Pfizer is developing with Nektar and Sanofi-Aventis, which is currently being reviewed by US and European regulatory authorities.

Bioren founder and chief executive officer, Dr Roberto Crea, said: "We are very excited about the great opportunity provided by Pfizer to apply our platform technologies in developing new antibodies that will benefit millions of patients."

Dr Crea was one of the four original scientific directors at Californian biotech Genentech in 1978, founding Bioren in 2002.

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pharmafocus@wiley.co.uk