Date: 2013-10-23
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: BL-9020
Company: BioLineRx (Israel) Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) B.G. Negev Technologies (Israel) Applications (Israel) Hadasit Medical Research Services and Development (Israel)
Therapeutic area: Metabolic diseases
Type agreement: licensing
Action mechanism: monoclonal antibody. BL-9020 is a novel antibody treatment for prevention of the development of Type 1 diabetes. It was developed to treat Type 1 diabetes in early stage patients, during what is known as the \"honeymoon period.\" At this early stage of the disease, the insulin-producing pancreatic cells are not completely destroyed and continue to secrete insulin. Pre-clinical studies suggest that BL-9020 can preserve surviving cells, thus preventing full maturation of the disease. BL-9020 targets the Natural Killer (NK) receptor NKp46, which has been linked to Type 1 diabetes. Studies have shown that Natural Killer cells belonging to the innate immune system have a key role in the damage to pancreatic cells and, as a consequence, in the development of Type 1 diabetes. Professor Ofer Mandelboim from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Professor Angel Progador from Ben-Gurion University, the inventors of BL-9020, together with Professor Yaakov Naparstek and Dr. Chamutal Gur from Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, found that the receptor NKp46 specifically recognizes pancreatic beta cells, leading to their destruction in both animal and human cells. These findings demonstrate the importance of the NKp46 receptor in diabetes development and emphasize the therapeutic potential of an anti-NKp46 monoclonal antibody as a new treatment modality for Type 1 diabetes. The inhibition of NK cells that are specifically targeted to the pancreas is a novel mechanism with potential to modify the course of the disease.
Disease: type 1 diabetes
Details: * On October 23, 2013, BioLineRx, a biopharmaceutical development company, has announced that it has signed a worldwide, exclusive license agreement with Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, B.G. Negev Technologies and Applications Ltd., and Hadasit Medical Research Services and Development Ltd. for BioLineRx to develop and commercialize BL-9020, for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. Promising results of preclinical studies in a mouse model of Type 1 diabetes demonstrated that BL-9020 is able to inhibit the onset of diabetes. Previously, the project was developed under BioLineRx\'s Early Development Program as EDP-10.
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