Ablynx: ABLYNX PRESENTS PIPELINE AND TECHNOLOGY UPDATE AT R&D DAY IN NEW YORK

GHENT, Belgium, 1^st March 2012 - Ablynx [Euronext Brussels: ABLX] will present recent developments and provide an outlook on its partnered and proprietary clinical and pre-clinical pipeline, as well as a technology update during today's R&D Day.  The event will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, USA starting at 08:00 a.m. EST and presentations will be given by Dr Edwin Moses, Ablynx's CEO and Chairman, Dr Josi Holz, Chief Medical Officer, and Dr Hilde Revets, Senior Research Fellow at Ablynx. At the session, Dr Moses will also outline Ablynx's focused business and commercial strategy, as well as providing an outlook on progress and expectations for the coming period.

Nanobodies are one of the leading next generation antibody platforms. Topics covered within the R&D sessions will demonstrate how continuous innovation can deliver potentially differentiated drug products.  Ablynx has seven Nanobody products at the clinical development stage and 18 partnered programmes in pre-clinical research and development.

Shortly after the session a pdf version of the PowerPoint presentation will be available online at the Company's website at www.ablynx.com.  A webcast of the event will not be available. The event will also be repeated on 8th March at the Company's facilities in Ghent, Belgium.

Progress with the clinical portfolio
Ablynx will provide an update on its active clinical programmes. This includes two programmes in Phase II clinical trials - its anti-von Willebrand Factor programmes (ALX-0081/ALX-0681) for the orphan disease indication thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and its anti-IL-6R programme (ALX-0061) which is in a study in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Ablynx also has two programmes in Phase I clinical trials, an anti-RSV programme (ALX-0171), the first Nanobody to be delivered through the pulmonary route, which recently entered the clinic and its anti-CXCR4 programme (ALX-0651), used in stem cell mobilisation in oncology, which is the first clinical stage Nanobody to target and functionally modulate a G Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR). As part of its pipeline prioritization, Ablynx has already indicated that it will not be proceeding with further clinical development of ALX-0651.

Also discussed will be the anti-TNFa Nanobody (ATN-103) which achieved clinical proof-of-concept in 2011 and the anti-RANKL programme (ALX-0141) for bone metastases which completed a successful Phase I study last year as well. Ablynx believes that both of these programmes require a partner to take them to the next stage of clinical development.

Pre-clinical development
First details will be announced today on a pre-clinical programme, for severe asthma, targeting IgE. This is the first Nanobody programme to utilize Ablynx's proprietary NExpedite^® half-life extension technology.

Technology and intellectual property
The R&D materials presented will highlight the potential for Nanobodies targeting protein classes such as ion channels which have to date proved very difficult for classical monoclonal antibody approaches. Also announced today, Ablynx's patent estate has been broadened and the Company has been granted a European patent for ATN-103. The patent will be published during March 2012.

Ablynx's CEO and Chairman, Dr Edwin Moses, commented:
"We are looking forward to describing the progress made for the seven Nanobodies at the clinical stage as well as discussing some of our exciting pre-clinical development and technology programmes. We will show how we are focusing our internal resources on our most advanced programmes and planning to continue to exploit the broad applicability of the innovative Nanobody platform through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies."

About Ablynx
Ablynx (http://www.ablynx.com/en/) is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of Nanobodies^® (http://www.ablynx.com/en/research-development/nanobody-technology/understanding-nanobodies/), a novel class of therapeutic proteins based on single-domain antibody fragments, for a range of serious and life-threatening human diseases, including inflammation, haematology, oncology and pulmonary disease. Today, the Company has over 25 programmes in the pipeline (http://www.ablynx.com/en/research-development/pipeline/) and seven Nanobodies at clinical development stage. Ablynx has ongoing research collaborations and significant partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, including Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck Serono and Novartis. The Company is headquartered in Ghent, Belgium. More information can be found on www.ablynx.com (http://www.ablynx.com/en/).

For more information, please contact

Ablynx:
Dr Edwin Moses
Chairman and CEO
t:   [phone]
m: [phone] /
     [phone]
e:  [e-mail] (mailto:[e-mail])

 
Marieke Vermeersch
Investor Relations Manager
t:   [phone]
m: [phone]
e:  [e-mail] (mailto:[e-mail]%20)

 
M:Communications:
Mary-Jane Elliott, Amber Bielecka, Claire Dickinson
t:   [phone]
e:  [e-mail] (mailto:[e-mail])

 

Complete version of the press release (http://hugin.info/137912/R/1590269/499548.pdf)

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