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.
