ABN Newswire is a business newswire and press release distribution service for listed companies on stock exchanges globally. ABN Newswire distributes company announcements to the professional platforms, finance portals and syndicates important corporate news to a wide variety of news aggregators and financial news systems.
Ablynx (EBR:ABLX) Ghent, Belgium, 10 December 2008 - Ablynx [Euronext Brussels: ABLX], a pioneer in the discovery and development of Nanobodies®, a novel class of antibody-derived therapeutic proteins, today announced that it has reached a milestone under the terms of its collaboration with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth. A milestone payment of $3 million has been triggered by the initiation by Wyeth of a first Phase I study in healthy volunteers for a Nanobody® targeting tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha).
Ablynx entered into an exclusive research collaboration and license agreement with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in November 2006, a deal potentially worth $212.5 million for the successful development and commercialization of multiple products. In addition Ablynx is eligible to receive royalties on product sales. Wyeth has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize anti-TNF-alpha Nanobodies® developed under the collaboration. TNF-alpha is a key drug target in combating inflammation related disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr Edwin Moses, CEO and Chairman of Ablynx commented: "We are very pleased that Wyeth has entered the clinic with a Nanobody®. This advance underscores the progress we have been making in our TNF-alpha partnership with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Wyeth has significant biologics expertise and a long history of biopharmaceutical drug development and proven success in the TNF-alpha area."
Separately from the Wyeth programme, Ablynx has two Nanobodies® in clinical development, ALX-0081 currently in a Phase Ib patient study and ALX-0681 which entered a Phase I healthy volunteer study earlier this week. Both these programmes target von Willebrand Factor. "We are very pleased to see a third Nanobody® in clinical development and we look forward to announcing the results of our ALX-0081 Phase Ib study in patients early in the New Year," added Dr Moses.
- ends -
For more information, please contact:
College Hill Life Sciences - for UK/International media enquiries: Sue Charles, Justine Lamond, Dr John McIntyre t: +44 (0)20 7866 7857 f: +44 (0)20 7866 7900 e: ablynx@collegehill.com
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