Medarex was an American biopharmaceutical company based in Princeton, New Jersey, with manufacturing facilities in Bloomsbury and Annandale, New Jersey, and research facilities in Milpitas and Sunnyvale, California. In 2009, Medarex was purchased by Bristol Myers Squibb.
Medarex developed monoclonal antibodies to CTLA-4 and PD-1, which are proteins on the surface of T cells. T cells attack cancer cells, but CTLA-4 and PD-1 act as "brakes" on the T cell's anti-cancer activities. The monoclonal antibodies bind to these proteins and block them, releasing the T cell to attack cancer cells.[1][2]
Several monoclonal antibodies developed by Medarex have been approved for disease therapy. In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Simponi, a human monoclonal antibody to tumor necrosis factor alpha co-developed with Johnson & Johnson's