Phage Display Technology was used by CAT to create adalimumab, the first fully human antibody blockbuster drug.

Humira, the brand name of adalimumab, is an anti-TNF antibody discovered by CAT as D2E7, then developed in the clinic and marketed by Abbvie, formerly Abbott Laboratories.

[6] CAT was often described as the 'jewel in the crown' of the British biotechnology industry[7] and during the latter years of its existence was the subject of frequent acquisition speculation.

CAT was founded in 1989 by Dr. David Chiswell OBE and Sir Greg Winter, with major scientific contributions from Dr. John McCafferty and the Medical Research Council (UK) (MRC).

When AstraZeneca acquired CAT in June 2006, plans were announced to occupy a new building on Granta Park, GP15, offering a further 92,000 sq ft (8,500 m2).

In accordance with accounting standards the cost of acquiring this new technology has been capitalised and will be written off over the lives of the patents concerned.".

In Aptein's technology, stop codons are eliminated so that the completed antibody and its mRNA remain bound together on the ribosome.

On 8 March 2002 the investment company Inwest made a competing offer valuing DRC at C$3.05 per share.

[29] On 23 January 2003 CAT made a share-based offer for Oxford Glycosciences (OGS)[30] and at an Extraordinary General Meeting shareholders voted to approve the merger.

Genencor licensed the candidates for hematological malignancies and entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the NIH, which will now be continued by CAT.

These included: CAT developed their display technologies further into several patented antibody discovery/functional genomics tools which were named Proximol[112] and ProAb.

ProAb was announced in December 1997[113] and involved high throughput screening of antibody libraries against diseased and non-diseased tissue, whilst Proximol used a free radical enzymatic reaction to label molecules in proximity to a given protein.

Three main families of major patents cover Cambridge antibody library and Phage Display technology: 'Winter II' and 'Winter/Huse/Lerner' patents cover Medimmune's processes for generating the collections of human antibody genes that comprise MedImmune Cambridge libraries.

These patents are co-owned by the MRC, The Scripps Research Institute and Stratagene and MedImmune currently has exclusive commercial exploitation rights, subject to certain rights held by the Medical Research Council (MRC), Scripps and Stratagene and their pre-existing licensees.

[125] In the late 1990s both companies found themselves jockeying for strong IP position in the area of therapeutic human antibody generation by way of a specific dispute (details on MorphoSys page).

The long, and protracted, dispute resulted which was eventually settled in late 2002 when some argued the settlement was enforced by an industry cash crunch.

The 'delighted' CEO at the time, Peter Chambré, reflected that the deal put an end to the distraction to both parties caused by the litigation.

[135][136][137][138][139] For these developments Winter was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with George Smith and Frances Arnold.

[140][141][142] Dave Chiswell OBE was responsible for operational management of CAT from 1990 to 2002, including time as chief executive officer from 1996 to 2002.

[152] Chambré had been the CEO of Bespak PLC since May 1994[153] and, in July 2000, became the chief operating officer of the genomics company Celera.

In 2018, McCafferty's 1990 phage research paper was cited by the Nobel committee when awarding the chemistry prize to Sir Gregory Winter, George Smith and Frances Arnold.

In November 2002, CAT announced its intention to seek independent financing for its development of the application of antibodies on microarrays for personalised medicine, as this fell outside CAT's focus on therapeutic antibodies and Johnson positively spearheaded this push.

Osbourn went on to chair the UK's BioIndustry Association in 2015[170] and, in 2019, was awarded the Order of the British Empire medal for services to "Human Monoclonal Antibody Drug Research and Development and Biotechnology".

[171] CAT's most significant award was the Prix Galien,[172] awarded for outstanding achievement in product and technology development, in recognition of its creativity in the development of novel human monoclonal antibody therapeutics especially in relation to its product CAT-152, which was used to treat fibrotic scarring in certain ophthalmology conditions.