GHENT, BELGIUM--(Marketwire - July 05, 2010) -
GHENT, Belgium, 5 July 2010 - Ablynx [Euronext Brussels: ABLX], announced today that it has been awarded a grant worth EUR1.1 million by the Flemish agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) and a second grant worth EUR0.4 million from the Portuguese government, as part of a consortium.
The IWT grant allows Ablynx to accelerate its pre-clinical development programme, ALX-0171, for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections. ALX-0171 binds to RSV and neutralises the virus. The Nanobody will be administered via the lungs and based on in vivo data, it has the potential to be effective both in the prevention of infection as well as in treatment once infection has occurred.
ALX-0171 is Ablynx’s first Nanobody pre-clinical development candidate to be delivered through a route other than injection. Like many Nanobodies, ALX-0171 is very stable, making it suitable for inhalation. It can also be manufactured at relatively low cost in microbial systems.
The grant from the Portuguese government will allow Ablynx and its collaborators, to explore routes of delivery for Nanobodies into the central nervous system (CNS) and to develop Nanobodies against therapeutically relevant CNS targets.
Edwin Moses, CEO and Chairman of Ablynx, said: “We are delighted with IWT’s continued support of Ablynx’s Nanobody platform as well as with this second grant from the Portuguese government which will allow us to further explore and develop Nanobody-based therapies for CNS diseases where the unmet medical need is very high. Today, we have over 25 therapeutic programmes in our pipeline with four Nanobody products in clinical development.”
[HUG#1429682]
Complete version of the press release: http://hugin.info/137912/R/1429682/376717.pdf
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Source: Ablynx via Thomson Reuters ONE
For more information, please contact
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: Email Contact
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: Email Contact
