Date: 2017-07-20
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: Nanobody®-based therapeutics
Company: Ablynx (Belgium) Sanofi (France)
Therapeutic area: Immunological diseases - Inflammatory diseases
Type agreement: research - licensing
Action mechanism:
- monoclonal antibody/nanobody. Nanobodies are antibody-derived therapeutic proteins that contain the unique structural and functional properties of naturally-occurring heavy-chain antibodies. The Nanobody® technology was originally developed following the discovery that camelidae (camels and llamas) possess fully functional antibodies that lack light chains. These heavy-chain antibodies contain a single variable domain (VHH) and two constant domains (CH2 and CH3). Importantly, the cloned and isolated VHH domain is a perfectly stable polypeptide harbouring the full antigen-binding capacity of the original heavy-chain antibody. These newly discovered VHH domains with their unique structural and functional properties form the basis of a new generation of therapeutic antibodies which Ablynx has named Nanobodies.
Disease: immune mediated inflammatory diseases
Details:
- • On July 20, 2017, Ablynx announced that it has entered into a research collaboration and global exclusive licensing agreement with Sanofi initially focused on developing and commercialising Nanobody®-based therapeutics for the treatment of various immune mediated inflammatory diseases. This collaboration gives Sanofi access to certain Nanobodies in Ablynx’s existing portfolio as well as to Ablynx’s scientists and proprietary Nanobody platform.
- Under the terms of the agreement, Sanofi gains exclusive global rights to certain multi-specific Nanobodies against selected targets, with options for similar rights to additional targets, for a total of eight potential Nanobody product candidates.
Financial terms:
- Financial terms of the agreement include an upfront payment of €23 million to Ablynx, comprised of license and option
fees. In addition, Ablynx will receive research funding, estimated to amount to €8 million for the initially
selected targets.
- Upon exercise of options to additional targets, Sanofi will pay Ablynx further option exercise fees and research funding. Sanofi will be responsible for the development, manufacturing and commercialisation of any products resulting from this agreement. Ablynx will be eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to €2.4 billion plus tiered royalties up to low double digits on the net sales of any products originating from the collaboration.
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Is general: Yes
