Ablynx Receives A Second Milestone Payment From Nanobody(R) Discovery And Development Alliance

GHENT, BELGIUM--(Marketwire - October 05, 2009) -

GHENT, Belgium, 5 October 2009 - Ablynx [Euronext Brussels: ABLX], announced today that it has received an undisclosed milestone payment from Novartis for an exclusive research license in one of the programmes that is a component of their ongoing Research and Development alliance.

Novartis and Ablynx are collaborating to discover and develop therapeutic Nanobodies® against targets that are difficult to address with conventional antibodies and their fragments. The alliance was entered into in December 2005, and extended in 2007 and again in December 2008 for a further year. Under the terms of this ongoing agreement, Ablynx receives upfront fees, license fees and funding for research and development. In addition, Ablynx will be eligible for milestone payments and royalties upon commercialisation.

Novartis has exclusive rights to develop and commercialise the Nanobody® products resulting from the collaboration. Financial terms are not disclosed.

Edwin Moses, CEO and Chairman of Ablynx, commented: “We are delighted that a second Nanobody® programme from our collaboration with Novartis is advancing to the next stage and we look forward to seeing these two programmes progressing towards development.”

-ends-

For more information, please contact: For international media enquiries: College Hill Life Sciences Sue Charles, Justine Lamond, Dr. John McIntyre t: +44 (0)20 7866 7857 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 
 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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