Abzena plc, a life sciences group providing services and technologies to enable development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, announced that a grant for €1.9 million has been awarded under the Eurostars programme to a consortium that comprises its subsidiary, Antitope Limited, Dutch biopharmaceutical companies Prothix BV and Aristi Biotech BV, the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU, the Netherlands) and GenOway, a French company.

The consortium is developing a novel treatment for clotting disorders, targeting antithrombin III, a protein which inhibits blood clotting. Members will provide their know-how and expertise to produce humanised monoclonal antibody candidates that bind antithrombin III, undertake preclinical proof of concept studies and develop a cell line for the manufacture of the selected lead candidate. This novel antibody has the potential to both prevent and treat bleeding in patients with disorders such as haemophilia.

Neil Butt, VP business development, Abzena, said, “Applying our Composite Human Antibody technology to this novel product will help produce a less immunogenic version, giving it a greater chance of improving the lives of patients.”

René Verdonk, CEO, Prothix, commented, “We are very pleased to have been awarded another Eurostars grant to develop a product that could prevent severe bleeding in patients with haemophilia and look forward to working with the other consortium members again.”

Erik Hack, professor of immunology, UMCU, said, “This project not only emphasizes the value of the research work undertaken at UMCU, but also illustrates that valorisation of research results is important to UMCU. We are excited to be part of a consortium and look forward to seeing the preclinical proof of concept for this novel approach.”

Mark de Boer, CEO, Aristi, said, "We are keen to be able to bring our expertise in the early stage manufacture of monoclonal antibodies to this programme and to be involved in its preclinical development”.

Alexandre Fraichard, CEO, GenOway, said “We are pleased to be able to add our expertise in the development of preclinical disease models to this consortium of organisations with complementary technologies that will enable the development of a novel therapeutic product to improve the lives of patients.”