The payment was triggered by the clearance of the Investigational New Drug (IND) application by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the Novartis Phase I study with a Nanobody that binds with an undisclosed GPCR target in inflammation. The Phase I study is expected to start in Q2 2016.
Dr Edwin Moses, CEO of Ablynx, commented: "We are very pleased that Novartis will soon begin clinical development of this novel Nanobody against a GPCR. This is the eighth Nanobody to enter the clinic. The unique structure of our Nanobodies make them ideal candidates to bind to complex targets such as GPCRs and ion channels, which have proved challenging for other biological-based platforms."
About the collaboration between Novartis and Ablynx
In December 2005, Ablynx and Novartis entered into an agreement to discover and develop novel Nanobody-based therapeutics against a number of disease targets. The deal included R&D payments, license fees, milestones and royalties. Novartis has full responsibility for the development and commercialisation and Ablynx is eligible to receive development and regulatory milestone payments and royalties on sales following commercialisation of the related products.