This morning pre-market trading was off to a strong start for XOMA Ltd. (Nasdaq: XOMA). By 7:30 a.m. CDT the stock was up 24 percent to $2.82 per share with a volume of 267,000. Before market open XOMA shares saw a gain of 54 cents from Monday’s closing price per share of $2.28.

The activity in the pre-market came right as the company announced the licensing of its patented bacterial cell expression (BCE) technology to Pfizer. Bacterial cell expression is an technology used to discover, develop and manufacture recombiant antibodies for commercial uses. According to XOMA, Pfizer is paying $30 million in cash for the technology.

XOMA will receive upfront payment of the licesing and will be awarded royalty and milestone payments on the sales of products subject to the license. The company will also re-evaluate and update financials within their 2007 third quarter filing.

“This agreement provides clear validation of XOMA’s antibody research and affirms XOMA’s ability to capitalize on the value of our patented technologies,” Steven Engle, president and CEO of XOMA, recently commented.

Engle added, “BCE is an enabling technology for antibody phage display discovery and for the manufacture of bacterially expressed therapeutic antibody products. It is a proven technology for commercially significant therapeutic antibodies as demonstrated by the approval of LUCENTIS for wet age-related macular degeneration. With more that 45 license agreements in place, BCE continues to be a seminal enabling technology in antibody discovery and production.”

XOMA is a leader in the discovery, development and manufacture of therapeutic antibodies with a focus on cancer and immune diseases. The company has licensed its BCE technology to major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including Merck, Centocor and Alexion Pharmaceuticals.