ETH Zurich spin-out Covagen has announced that its collaboration with Roche, which began in 2009, has been extended. Under the new agreement, Covagen will use its proprietary technology to isolate Fynomers binding to targets provided by Roche. Fynomers delivered by Covagen will be used by Roche as a research tool in drug discovery.
The financial terms of this agreement were not disclosed. Julian Bertschinger, CEO and co-founder of Covagen, said, “After the successful completion of all milestones in the previous contract we are proud to extend the collaboration with Roche.”
Fynomers are a novel class of small binding proteins that can be used for various therapeutic applications. It is possible to link Fynomers together produce multivalent molecules that bind with very high affinity to their targets. In addition, it is possible to engineer bispecific Fynomers, which are able to bind to two antigens simultaneously, thus yielding drug candidates with new mechanisms of action.
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