Ablynx has extended for a second time its research collaboration with a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, to develop and commercialise Nanobody candidates directed towards an undisclosed voltage gated ion channel.
The extension agreement will trigger a EUR1 million milestone payment to Ablynx, and Merck will extend their funding of the research collaboration at Ablynx to September 2018, the company has said Wednesday.
The ion channel collaboration was announced in October 2012 and included a EUR6.5 million upfront payment and EUR2 million in initial research funding. In March 2015, the Company announced a first extension of the research term to September 2016.
Dr Edwin Moses, CEO of Ablynx
Dr Edwin Moses, CEO of Ablynx, commented: “We are pleased that Merck will, for the second time, extend the research term of our current ion channel collaboration. This decision is based on the very encouraging progress we made in the discovery of Nanobodies against this challenging target and builds on the competitive advantage of our proprietary Nanobody platform in the generation of innovative therapeutic candidates against target classes that have proven difficult to address with conventional antibody technologies.”