Ablynx, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of Nanobodies, a novel class of therapeutic proteins based on single-domain antibody fragments, for a range of serious and life-threatening human diseases, including inflammation, haematology, oncology and pulmonary disease, has been granted another key European patent around its Nanobody-based half-life extension technology. The decision to grant the European patent EP 1 888 641 was issued by the European Patent Office on November 17, 2011.

The patent EP 1 888 641 covers the half-life extending Nanobody, targeting human serum albumin, that is used in a number of the Nanobody products that Ablynx currently has in clinical and pre-clinical development, including Ablynx's anti-TNFa Nanobody product ATN-103, which this year achieved clinical proof-of-concept in a Phase II clinical trial. This half-life extending Nanobody can also be used to increase the half-life of other therapeutic proteins and polypeptides.

The grant of this European patent comes on top of the recent grant of a number of other patents for Ablynx's Nanobody-based half-life extension technology. On July 27, 2011, Ablynx was granted the European patent EP 1 558 645, which covers the pulmonary administration of Ablynx's half-life extended Nanobody products. On December 7, 2011, the European patent EP 2 086 998 was granted, which broadly covers the mode-of-action of half-life extending immunoglobulin single variable domains, including Ablynx's half-life extending Nanobody. Furthermore, on September 20, 2011 a notice of allowance was issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the US application 11/474,521, which is a patent application (in-licensed by Ablynx from the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology) that claims Nanobodies against serum albumin that can be used for half-life extension. This will be the earliest granted patent that covers serum albumin-binding Nanobodies that can be used for half-life extension.

Patent applications that correspond to the now granted European patent EP 1 888 641 are also pending in the United States, and related patent applications are also pending in other countries worldwide.

Dr Edwin Moses, CEO and chairman at Ablynx, commented: “We are very pleased to add another key patent to our expanding patent estate for our Nanobody-based half-life extension technology. This confirms our leading position in this area. Our half-life extending Nanobody has already achieved clinical proof-of-concept in a phase II clinical trial and we have also shown that it can be produced at high yield on a clinical scale and stably formulated at high concentrations. This makes our half-life extending Nanobody potentially unique compared to similar technologies, which up to now appear not to have been able to get beyond the research stage. In total, we have over 500 granted patents and patents applications protecting our strong position in Nanobody-related technologies.”