Ablynx collaborates with Novartis to develop Nanobody-based therapeutics

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Jan. 18 - Ablynx said Wednesday that it has signed a collaboration agreement with Novartis to develop therapeutic Nanobodies against a number of targets in a range of disease areas.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ablynx will receive upfront fees, license fees and funding for research and development, according to a company news release.

Ablynx said it also will be eligible for milestone payments and royalties upon commercialization.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Both companies will collaborate to discover and develop novel Nanobody-based therapeutics against disease targets that are difficult to address with conventional antibodies or their fragments, officials said.

Novartis has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the Nanobody products resulting from the collaboration, officials added.

"This partnership is the second of a number of corporate alliances that Ablynx will be announcing in the course of 2006 and further validates our Nanobody platform as a promising discovery engine for novel breakthrough therapeutics," Mark Vaeck, chief executive officer of Ablynx, said in the release.

Ablynx is a Ghent, Belgium, biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of Nanobodies, a novel class of therapeutic proteins based on single-domain antibody fragments, for diseases that include inflammation, thrombosis, oncology and Alzheimer's disease.

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