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AlgoNomics granted patent rights for Epibase.
Immunogenicity screening tool for protein therapeutics granted a European patent.
Ghent, Belgium - March 07, 2007 - AlgoNomics NV, the immunoprofiling company, announced today that notice of grant has been received from the European Patent Office for a key patent covering its EpibaseŽ technology.
EpibaseŽ is applied for the immunogenicity screening and optimization of biotherapeutics, such as therapeutic antibodies, biosimilars and vaccines. The patent relates to AlgoNomics' method to identify T-cell epitopes through the physicochemical interactions of the epitopes with their HLA Class-I and Class-II receptors.
Philippe Stas, COO of AlgoNomics: "We provide the state of the art in modeling of proteins, and this patent confirms our pioneering role in the field of immunogenicity screening and epitope identification."
According to Dr. Lasters, CEO of AlgoNomics, "This patent confirms our innovative position as a world-leader in immunogenicity assessment of protein therapeutics".
About EpibaseŽ
EpibaseŽ estimates to what extent a given therapeutic protein may lead to an immune response in patients. The computer based platform focuses on T-cell epitope identification. The uniqueness of EpibaseŽ resides in its capability to identify the T-cell epitopes specific for HLA types covering most of the human population (including Caucasian, Oriental and Afro-American). This includes the majority of HLA sub-types for which little or no experimental data is available.
About immunogenicity
All therapeutic proteins show some level of immunogenicity, a side effect where the patient recognizes the drug as a "foreign" substance. This causes the patient's immune system to mount a defence against the therapeutic drug, resulting in significant reduction of efficacy and a rapid clearance of the drug from the circulation. The process is driven by the presence of T-cell epitopes in the protein: fragments binding to HLA receptors and inducing a T-cell response. There is a growing consensus about the need for early adoption and standardisation of immunogenicity assessments for biologicals.
About AlgoNomics
AlgoNomics is a Belgium based biotech company providing structural bioinformatics services to develop rationally designed therapeutics in the broad field of immunotherapy. AlgoNomics owns a rich, proprietary platform for structure-based protein and peptide design. The technology platform contains innovative tools to unravel protein-protein and protein-peptide interactions.
AlgoNomics' premier product is the EpibaseŽ platform for T-cell epitope identification in different population groups, applied in the discovery of vaccines and therapeutic proteins.
For more information about AlgoNomics visit www.algonomics.com
Further Information
AlgoNomics N.V.
ir. Philippe Stas
Chief Operating Officer
Technologiepark 4
B-9052 Gent – Belgium
Tel.: +32.(0)9.241.11.00
Fax.: +32.(0)9.241.11.02
Philippe.Stas@algonomics.com
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