EUROSCREEN ANNOUNCES AEQUORIN LICENSE WITH UCB
Euroscreen s.a. has completed a license agreement with UCB S.A. Pharma Sector (Brussels, Belgium) for access to the company's aequorin patent rights.
Brussels, Belgium, January 20, 2003 - Euroscreen s.a. has completed a license agreement with UCB S.A. Pharma Sector (Brussels, Belgium) for access to the company's aequorin patent rights. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
Interest in Euroscreen's aequorin technology has increased significantly both in size and scope as a result of the growing luminescent automation now available for such cellular-based apoaequorin assays as well as interest in the company's expertise in using the technology for G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) assays.
"This contract is a significant milestone for Euroscreen," noted Pierre Nokin, Ph.D., the CEO of Euroscreen. "We have worked with UCB on aequorin since 1999 and now they will further recognize the research utility of the apoaequorin-mediated detection of calcium ion flux in cells by taking this full license to continue to pursue all applications of the technology."
For further information, please contact:
Euroscreen s.a. Pierre Nokin, Ph.D.
Tel: +32 71 348 500
President and CEO
pnokin@euroscreen.be
Alfred Gray, Ph.D.
Tel: +1 (972) 462 0761
VP, Business Development
al.gray@euroscreen.be
About Euroscreen SA
Euroscreen is a world leader in G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The Company integrates its research expertise in this area with its patented high-throughput AequoScreen(tm) cellular assay platform to 'deorphanize' GPCRs, i.e. to identify new ligands of GPCRs that might form the basis of new therapeutics.
The Company is building its own patent portfolio of GPCR targets and novel drug leads for licensing to biopharmaceutical companies, and to date has agreements with Alchemia, Galapagos Genomics, ICOS, Merck & Co, Pfizer Inc, Solvay, Syngenta and UCB. Euroscreen has also established collaborations with academic centres, such as Brussels University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the University of Georgia Research Foundation, the University of Virginia Patent Foundation and the University of Toronto, for access to its GPCR-based products (recombinant cell lines and membrane preparations) and services (custom screening and cloning). Euroscreen currently has 80 employees of which 50 are in R&D.
More information can be found at www.euroscreen.be
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