uniQure Extends Collaboration with Protein Sciences Corporation on Use of its expresSF+® Cell Line for Gene Therapy
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
uniQure, a leader in the field of human gene therapy, announced today the extension of its collaboration with Protein Sciences Corporation ("Protein Sciences") for the exclusive use of Protein Sciences' expresSF+® (SF+) insect cell line in uniQure's AAV gene therapy programs for three specific disease indications. uniQure has the option to extend this exclusivity further into additional indications in the future.
"This agreement strengthens uniQure's gene therapy platform and further demonstrates the quality of the cell line developed by Protein Sciences." said Joern Aldag, Chief Executive of uniQure. "Protein Sciences' cell line license agreement with Merck made earlier this year and the anticipated approval of its influenza vaccine FluBlok® implies SF+ technology will hold a prominent place in the manufacture of biologics."
The SF+ cell line developed by Protein Sciences is an integral component of uniQure's validated, world leading manufacturing platform. uniQure believes that this platform is the only commercially-scalable platform available for manufacturing AAV gene therapy products.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
About uniQure
uniQure is a world leader in the development of human gene based therapies. uniQure has a product pipeline of gene therapy products in development for hemophilia B, acute intermittent porphyria, Parkinson's disease and SanfilippoB. Using adeno-associated viral (AAV) derived vectors as the delivery vehicle of choice for therapeutic genes, the company has been able to design and validate probably the world's first stable and scalable AAV manufacturing platform. This proprietary platform can be applied to a large number of rare (orphan) diseases caused by one faulty gene and allows uniQure to pursue its strategy of focusing on this sector of the industry. Further information can be found at http://www.uniqure.com.
SOURCE uniQure BV