Ablynx, Novo Nordisk Form Drug Discovery Pact

Ablynx has entered into a global exclusive collaboration and licensing agreement with Novo Nordisk to discover and develop novel multi-specific Nanobody drug candidates for use in an undisclosed disease area, with an option to expand the agreement to include a second Nanobody program.

Ablynx will receive an upfront license fee of €5 million and up to €4 million in research funding during the initial three-year research term of the collaboration. If Novo Nordisk decides to exercise the option to the second program, the company will pay Ablynx an exercise fee of €4 million. In addition, Ablynx is eligible to receive potential development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to €182 million per program plus tiered royalties on the annual net sales on any products resulting from the collaboration. Novo Nordisk will be responsible for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of any products resulting from this agreement.

“Our proprietary Nanobody technology platform is ideally suited to develop multi-specific Nanobody candidates that address multiple targets in a single drug molecule, applicable across a wide range of diseases,” said Edwin Moses, chief executive officer, Ablynx.”