September 25, 2007 02:47 ET
ABLYNX IS AWARDED EUR 1.9 MILLION GRANT TO EXPLORE NEW THERAPEUTIC USES OF NANOBODIES®
GHENT, BELGIUM--(Marketwire - September 25, 2007) - Ablynx the biopharmaceutical
company focused on the discovery and development of
Nanobodies®,
today announced that it has been awarded a grant worth EUR 1.855M
by
the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science
and
Technology in Flanders (IWT).
The grant allows Ablynx to accelerate the speed of exploring a
number
of new therapeutic Nanobody® applications, in which their
unique
properties would be exploited. These properties include
their
exceptional stability allowing pulmonary delivery, small size
and
exceptional format flexibility and ability to access targets, so
far
inaccessible to conventional antibodies, with the potential
to
provide a highly efficient virus neutralization
capability.
Importantly, this grant will enable Ablynx to expand its
dominant
intellectual property portfolio.
Research under the grant will be conducted in collaboration
with
leading research groups, including teams at Utrecht University,
the
Netherlands, led by Professor Verrips, and with a wide network
of
academic collaborators in Belgium (VIB, VUB and KUL),
Norway,
Germany, the UK, Spain and France.
"We are extremely pleased to tap into world class biological
and
disease expertise to exploit new applications for Nanobodies®"
said
Dr Hans de Haard, Senior Director Discovery Research at Ablynx.
"This
research will build on the data from a concurrent programme in
which
Nanobodies® have been produced against a wide variety of
targets
grouped into target families according to structural homology
or
biological links. The target families addressed include
extracellular
targets such as transmembrane proteins and receptors, enzymes,
serum
proteins and soluble signaling factors."
Dr Hennie Hoogenboom, Chief Scientific Officer at Ablynx
commented
"IWT's continued support of Ablynx's Nanobody® technology platform
is
very encouraging. We believe the grant will allow us to explore
a
number of innovative therapeutic Nanobody® applications and will
help
to maintain the groundbreaking progress we are making,
accelerating
the exploitation of Nanobodies® across multiple target
classes,
whilst continuing to ensure our IP is protected from ever
increasing
competition."
Contacts at Northbank Communications:
Sue Charles, Annabel Entress, Justine Lamond, Tony Stephenson
t: +44 (0)20 7268 3002
m: +44 (0)7968 726 585 (SC)
e: ablynx@northbankcommunications.com
Contacts at Ablynx:
Dr. Edwin Moses
Chairman and CEO
t: +32 (0)9 262 00 07
m: +44 (0)7771 954 193 / +32 (0)473 39 50 68
e: edwin.moses@ablynx.com
Eva-Lotta Allan
Chief Business Officer
t: +32 (0)9 262 00 75
m: +32 (0)475 78 36 21 / +44 (0)7990 570 900
e: eva-lotta.allan@ablynx.com
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