The current development is a part of a research agreement signed in 2005 between Ablynx and Novartis, and has been extended by mutual agreement last year.
Novartis is now expected to take up responsibilities for the continued progress of both programmes and Ablynx will be eligible to receive development based milestone payments and royalties on sales following commercialisation of the products.
Edwin Moses, chairman and CEO of Ablynx, said: “We are excited to see these two complex programmes progressing towards the clinic in Novartis’ hands and pleased that the commercial licenses have been executed.
“The targets are ones where conventional antibody approaches have had limited success. This is further validation of the nature of Ablynx’s Nanobody platform, where functional Nanobodies have been successfully generated against GPCRs and ion channels.
“Earlier this year, we announced that we have selected a new GPCR targeting development candidate, ALX-0651, an anti-CXCR4 Nanobody which is being developed by Ablynx.”