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news.Belgium biotech Ablynx has signed a collaboration agreement with Switzerland's Novartis to discover and develop therapeutic nanobodies aimed at a range of diseases.
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Ablynx originally pioneered nanobody discovery. Now both companies will collaborate to discover and develop novel nanobody-based therapeutics against disease targets that are difficult to address with conventional antibodies or their fragments.
Novartis has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the nanobody products resulting from the collaboration.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ablynx will receive upfront fees and funding for research and development. In addition, Ablynx will be eligible for milestone payments and royalties upon commercialization. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“This partnership is the second of a number of corporate alliances that Ablynx will be announcing in the course of 2006 and further validates our nanobody platform as a promising discovery engine for novel breakthrough therapeutics,” said Dr Mark Vaeck, CEO of Ablynx.
Ablynx recently partnered Centocor to further research the use of nanobody-based therapeutics.