BELGIUM - Ablynx raises EUR 40m in C financing round

Wietske Blees
23 August 2006

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Ablynx, a company specialising in the discovery and development of Nanobodies, a novel class of antibody-derived therapeutic proteins, has announced the successful closing of its series C financing round raising EUR 40m.

The international syndicate of investors was led by new investor KBC, while SR One, the venture capital arm of GSK was the second new investor. Existing investors Abingworth Management, Alta Partners, Biotech Fund Flanders, Gilde Healthcare Partners, GIMV and Sofinnova Partners, as well as VIB also participated in the round. The transaction brings the total capital raised by Ablynx since its inception in 2002 to date to EUR 70m.

Combined with its existing cash, Ablynx will now be able to fund operations through to at least mid 2008, allowing the company to further develop its product pipeline based on its proprietary Nanobody technology and to rapidly increase its headcount which is currently just over seventy. Ablynx is developing a portfolio of Nanobody-based therapeutic programs in a number of major disease areas, including inflammation, thrombosis, oncology and Alzheimer’s disease. Three of these programs are in preclinical development, and Ablynx is on track to submit its first regulatory filing before the end of this year and anticipates to initiate phase I studies in early 2007.

Ablynx’ strategy is to build a diverse and broad portfolio of therapeutic Nanobodies based on strategic partnerships as well as on its own internal discovery pipeline. It has ongoing research collaborations and significant, multi-target partnerships with several major pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, Centocor (J&J), Kirin Breweries and P&G Pharmaceuticals.