Zurich-Schlieren, Switzerland, November 8th 2010 -- Covagen (CH) announced today that the collaboration with Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY), which began in 2009, has been extended. Under the new agreement, Covagen
will use its proprietary technology to isolate Fynomers binding to targets provided by
Roche. Fynomers delivered by Covagen will be used by Roche as a research tool to
discover new treatment modalities. The financial terms of this agreement were not
disclosed.
Dr. Julian Bertschinger, CEO and co-founder of Covagen commented: “After the successful
completion of all milestones of the previous contract we are proud to extend the
collaboration with Roche.” Dr. Dragan Grabulovski, CSO and co-founder of Covagen added:
“Roche is one of the leading science-based healthcare companies in the field of
biopharmaceuticals, and we look forward to working together.”
Fynomers are a novel class of small binding proteins that can be used for various
therapeutic applications. Due to their favorable properties, several Fynomers can be linked
to yield multivalent molecules that bind with very high affinity to their targets. Moreover, it
is straightforward to engineer bispecific Fynomers, which are able to bind to two antigens
simultaneously, thus yielding drug candidates with new mechanisms of action.
For further details, please contact:
Covagen AG
Dr. Julian Bertschinger, CEO
Tel: +41 (0) 44 732 46 60
julian.bertschinger@covagen.com
About Covagen: Covagen commercializes next generation protein drugs for the treatment
of inflammatory diseases and cancer by using its proprietary protein engineering
technology, which has been developed at ETH Zurich (Switzerland). Covagen's innovative
platform comprises a novel single domain protein scaffold, which - in analogy to antibodies
- can be engineered to yield high affinity binding proteins called Fynomers that can be
used for therapeutic applications. The possibility to create bispecific as well as multivalent
Fynomers and their favorable biophysical properties allow for treatment modalities that are
difficult or impossible to be exploited with antibodies.