Breda, The Netherlands / Ghent, Belgium,– arGEN-X N.V. (Euronext Brussels: ARGX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating and developing differentiated therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer and severe autoimmune diseases, today announced that it has received a € 1.5 million grant from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Sciences and Technology in Flanders (IWT). This grant will be used to advance and commercialize the application of the NHance® Fc modifications in therapeutic antibodies.
We are very pleased to have received this support from IWT. As an organization, IWT has enabled the steady build of highly competitive Flemish biotechnology companies and we hope to continue this reputation with the advancement of our own novel, cutting edge research. NHance® is our proprietary approach to prolonging antibody circulation time. With the IWT grant, we aim to further confirm the benefit of antibodies equipped with NHance® by demonstrating enhanced tissue and tumor penetration with select antibody candidates in murine disease models, commented Michael Saunders, Senior Director, Targets & Programs at arGEN-X. In addition, efficient sweeping of the disease target by Fc modified antibodies can be further explored as NHance® has the game changing benefit of enhanced clearance of the target while the recycled antibody can be used for renewed target binding.
arGEN-X’ technology suite consists of four complementary platforms. The proprietary SIMPLE Antibody™ discovery platform enables the targeting of complex or novel disease targets, and has been effective to-date in generating antibody leads with attributes beyond those attainable using current platforms. The Fc engineering technologies NHance®, ABDEG™ and POTELLIGENT®, have the potential to further enhance the intrinsic therapeutic functionalities of its antibody leads by prolonging product residence time in the human body, enhancing the clearance of disease targets or pathogenic antibodies and enhancing antibody cell killing through antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC), respectively. These technology platforms can be applied alone or in combination to yield differentiated therapeutic antibodies with multiple modes of action.
SIMPLE Antibody™, NHance® and ABDEG™ are trademarks of arGEN-X NV
POTELLIGENT® is a trademark of BioWa Inc.
