Ablynx will receive further milestone payments totalling €3 million from Boehringer Ingelheim, triggered as part of its strategic alliance for the development and commercialisation of Nanobodies. Ablynx has now earned a total of €12 million in milestone payments as part of this agreement.

Ablynx and Boehringer Ingelheim entered into an agreement in September 2007 to collaborate on the discovery, development and commercialisation of up to 10 different Nanobody therapeutics across a range of areas including for example immunology, oncology and respiratory diseases. The agreement would allow potential milestone payments of up to €125 million for each Nanobody developed as well as undisclosed royalties to Ablynx. Boehringer Ingelheim is exclusively responsible for the development, manufacture and commercialisation of any products resulting from the collaboration. Ablynx retains certain co-promotion rights in Europe.

Dr Edwin Moses, CEO and chairman of Ablynx, said, “We are pleased that yet another Nanobody programme has reached this contractual milestone. The Nanobody platform continues to deliver across therapeutic areas and also for complex targets.”

Founded in 2001 in Ghent, Belgium, Ablynx is a biopharmaceutical company focused on 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.