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Molecular Partners enters into a strategic collaboration agreement with Boehringer
Ingelheim to support its proprietary pipeline with clinical supply of DARPin® molecules
Zurich-Schlieren, Switzerland and Ingelheim, Germany, 12 November 2012 – Molecular
Partners and Boehringer Ingelheim’s biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing business
have entered into a strategic manufacturing collaboration.
Under the terms of the agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim will be responsible for the
generation of the E. coli production strains and the manufacture of tox and clinical stage
material for multiple DARPin® products supplying Molecular Partners’ proprietary DARPin®
pipeline.
Simon Sturge, Corporate Senior Vice President Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals
commented: “We are happy to have entered into this collaboration with Molecular Partners
as we believe in the DARPin® platform to be one of the future therapeutic modalities next to
monoclonal antibodies allowing highly differentiated drugs for patients with unsatisfactory
treatment options. This agreement reflects the strategy of Boehringer Ingelheim and its new
brand Boehringer Ingelheim BioXcellence™ to be dedicated and committed to highly
innovative molecule platforms and projects.”
Christian Zahnd, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Molecular Partners said: “Boehringer
Ingelheim Biopharmaceuticals is the ideal partner to support us with highest quality GMP
production capacity. This collaboration is a further commitment that Molecular Partners
establishes a strong proprietary DARPin® pipeline and it will allow us to develop DARPin®
based products for patients in need at highest quality and speed.”
“We entered into this collaboration after the successful case study where both monospecific
and multispecific DARPins® could be expressed intracellularely in E. coli as soluble proteins
at high titers and were successfully purified to highest standards”, stated Lothar Halmer,
Vice President Operations Microbial and site head of Boehringer Ingelheim Austria. “We are
delighted to be able to work with Molecular Partners to support their clinical development
strategies for their DARPins® pipeline.”
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About Molecular Partners AG
Molecular Partners is a privately-owned biotech company focusing on the research,
development and commercialization of a novel class of biological drugs known as DARPins®.
The company is committed to create medicines for diseases with unmet medical need and to
dramatically improve existing therapies. DARPins® combine the high specificity, selectivity
and safety of monoclonal antibodies with many advantages of small molecules, including
high stability and low-cost production and adding the ability of combining multiple
specificities. Molecular Partners has established a strong DARPin® pipeline which is well
differentiated from standard therapeutic approaches. Molecular Partners is focusing on
DARPin® drugs in inflammation, oncology, ophthalmology and other disease areas. The most
advanced DARPin® (MP0112) is in phase IIb clinical development and has been partnered
with Allergan. The internal pipeline is expanded by partnered programs with leading
pharmaceutical companies. Molecular Partners has established collaborations with Allergan,
Janssen Biotech and others. The company is backed by a strong syndicate of investors and
holds a strong patent estate covering all DARPin® applications.
About DARPins®
DARPins® are a new generation of target-binding proteins which can be isolated from large
libraries. The DARPin® platform is an efficient product generating engine creating
differentiated and high quality drugs at unmatched speed. Each drug candidate profits from
a wide range of beneficial biophysical properties, including high stability and solubility, high
yield and low-cost microbial production. Also, DARPins® show very high potencies and
pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles tailored to the demand of the application, ranging from
minutes to weeks. DARPins® can be effortlessly combined into multispecific drug candidates
without compromising biophysical and development characteristics. This rapid and robust
generation of multispecific DARPins® allows new combinatorial approaches in exploring
target biology.
About Boehringer Ingelheim
The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies.
Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 145 affiliates and more than
44,000 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been
committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel medications of
high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine. In 2011, Boehringer Ingelheim
achieved net sales of about 13.2 billion Euro.
Boehringer Ingelheim Biopharma Contract Manufacturing is now represented by its new
brand Boehringer Ingelheim BioXcellence™. As a leading biopharmaceutical contract
manufacturer with more than 35 years of experience – the company has brought 19
biopharmaceutical products to market. Boehringer Ingelheim BioXcellence™ offers tailormade contract development and manufacturing services to the biopharmaceutical industry,
providing the entire production technology chain from DNA to fill and finish under one roof
at its facilities in Biberach (Germany), Vienna (Austria) and Fremont (USA).
Boehringer Ingelheim BioXcellence™ can secure product supply throughout the entire
product lifecycle—transferring customer projects at any stage, delivering to almost any scale
and thereby makes outsourcing easy.
For further details please contact:
For Molecular Partners
Dr. Christian Zahnd, CEO
[email protected]
Dr. Patrick Amstutz, CBO
[email protected]
+41 44 755 7700
Media relations Molecular Partners
College Hill Life Sciences
Tel: +49 (0)89 5238 8030
[email protected]
For Boehringer Ingelheim
Heidrun Thoma
Corporate Communications
55216 Ingelheim/Germany
Phone: +49 (0)6132 77 3966