ABLYNX IDENTIFIES NOVEL NANOBODIES(R) ACHIEVING SECOND MILESTONE IN PROCTER & GAMBLE COLLABORATION
GHENT, Belgium, 18 June 2007 - Ablynx, the pioneer in the discovery and development of Nanobodies® has announced that its collaboration agreement with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals Inc. (P&GP), a division of The Procter & Gamble Company, has reached a second milestone. Ablynx has discovered novel Nanobodies® against a second target for possible new treatments in the musculoskeletal area. The first milestone under this collaboration was achieved in December 2006 and was also a target for musculoskeletal diseases.
Ablynx's unique and patented Nanobody® technology has been used to rapidly identify a highly diverse and potent panel of Nanobodies® against one of the targets exclusive to the collaboration, triggering a second undisclosed milestone payment.
Hennie R. Hoogenboom, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Ablynx, said: "We are delighted to have met another important milestone as part of our on-going collaboration with Procter & Gamble. This is yet another important validation of the speed at which our Nanobody® technology platform can deliver high quality Nanobodies®. We are very excited to advance this programme to the next stage together with Procter & Gamble."
Kevin E. Driscoll, PhD, Director New Technology Development at P&GP added:
"We are very pleased with the progression of our collaboration with Ablynx. We are a step closer towards the goal of producing Nanobody® development candidates in this very important area of musculoskeletal diseases."
As part of this on-going collaboration Ablynx is responsible for discovering Nanobodies® that meet an agreed product profile. P&GP is responsible for the pre-clinical and clinical development of Nanobodies®, as well as the commercialization of any resulting drug products... |
