Pepscan Therapeutics has entered to a multi-target research agreement with an undisclosed US-based antibody discovery company. Under the agreement Pepscan using its CLIPS platform and other protein mimicry technologies will work with the partner in the discovery of novel antibodies.

According to the terms of the agreement, Pepscan will receive R&D funding and could receive payments on the achievement of research and clinical milestones, as well as royalties on sales of products resulting from the collaboration. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

CLIPS (Chemical LInkage of Peptides onto Scaffolds) is a technology to present one or more peptides in a structurally constrained configuration. These molecules behave as functional mimics of structurally complex protein domains. CLIPS therapeutic peptides have been shown to exert excellent activity and stability. CLIPS peptides are also used as superior immunogens for antibody generation against disease relevant protein targets. This is especially valuable in the case of proteins that are inaccessible as recombinant proteins, such as GPCRs.

Wim Mol, CEO,  Pepscan, said: "We are excited to collaborate in this partnership, since we strongly believe that Pepscan's peptide design and protein mimicry technology combined with our partner's world-class platform for antibody discovery and optimization will yield truly innovative therapeutic products."

"We recognize the perfect match of our combined technologies - Pepscan designing and providing tailored peptide immunogens, and our partner applying its state-of-the-art antibody discovery platform. We therefore believe that this agreement only forms the start of a promising and productive relationship between our two companies, "he added.

Pepscan Therapeutics B.V. is a privately held company based in Lelystad, The Netherlands. Pepscan is using its proprietary CLIPS protein mimicking technology for the development of novel constrained therapeutic peptides and immunogens.