Agreement to develop new Alzheimer's treatments

Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, and Ablynx, the pioneer in the discovery and development of Nanobodies, have jointly announced an exclusive worldwide collaboration and licence agreement worth almost $265 million to discover and develop new therapies for Alzheimer's disease using Ablynx's Nanobodies, a novel class of therapeutic proteins.

In addition Boehringer Ingelheim will commence a joint research programme including Ablynx scientists.

Boehringer Ingelheim will be solely responsible for the development, manufacture and commercialisation of any products resulting from the collaboration.

The deal includes an upfront fee, development and commercial milestones.

Ablynx will also receive undisclosed royalties based on net sales.

Nanobodies could be particularly important in developing new Alzheimer's disease treatments, as researchers believe they could solve the problems faced by other drugs or conventional treatments.

Due to their special characteristics, Nanobodies may cross the blood-brain barrier more readily than conventional antibodies.

Edwin Moses, chief executive officer of Ablynx, said: "Boehringer Ingelheim has developed considerable expertise in the field of neurological diseases including Alzheimer's disease and combined with their biologic biopharmaceutical capabilities we believe they are the ideal partner to ensure that we maximise the therapeutic potential of Nanobodies.

"There is a growing serious unmet medical need to treat Alzheimer's disease which urgently requires new and innovative approaches.

"We are delighted that Boehringer Ingelheim has determined that Nanobodies represent such an approach".

Andreas Barner, vice-chairman of the board of managing directors and head of corporate board division pharma research, development and medicine added: "We look forward to working with Ablynx to discover new Nanobodies.

"We are very excited about the opportunity to develop new biological entities for treating Alzheimer's disease based on this powerful and unique technology".

Ablynx's strategy is to build a diverse and broad portfolio of therapeutic Nanobodies based on strategic partnerships as well as on its own internal discovery pipeline.

It has ongoing research collaborations and significant, multi-target partnerships with several other major pharmaceutical companies, including Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Centocor (J+J), Kirin Brewery and Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals.

Nanobody-based therapeutics represent a major commercial opportunity as they combine the beneficial features of conventional antibodies, with desirable properties of small-molecule drugs.

Because they are derived from naturally-occurring heavy-chain antibodies, Nanobodies have unparalleled stability and can be administered in a variety of ways (injected, orally, in sprays or creams), thus overcoming the delivery issues associated with full-sized antibodies, that can only be delivered by injection.

In addition, because of their unique structure they can also address therapeutic opportunities that are beyond the reach of conventional antibodies or their fragments, for example targeting epitopes such as receptor clefts, enzyme active sites and viral canyon sites.

Nanobodies manufactured in micro-organisms also present a significant cost advantage in comparison to production methods for conventional antibodies.