Ablynx wins patent opposition case against Domantis

Published: 12-Feb-2010

Ablynx, a Belgian developer of nanobodies, has been successful its patent opposition case against Domantis, now part of GlaxoSmithKline.


Ablynx, a Belgian developer of nanobodies, has been successful its patent opposition case against Domantis, now part of GlaxoSmithKline. As a result, the European Patent Office has revoked European Patent 1 517 921 in full. If this decision becomes final, all the claims of this patent as originally granted will be deemed to have never existed.

The patent related to one specific technique for the half-life extension of immunoglobulin single variable domains. Without the patent, Ablynx and its partners can apply the techniques described therein for their internal and partnered programmes.

Edwin Moses, Ablynx chief executive, said: "This is the result that we always anticipated. From all the evidence available to us, we strongly believe that our current half-life extension technologies currently outperform those of GSK/Domantis, and that once this patent has been finally revoked, we and our partners can be confident that we will have yet another half-life extension technology available to us that we can use without being encumbered by third party patent rights."

This is in addition to Ablynx's proprietary NExpedite technology, which Moses says is showing "ever greater promise".

"All this will allow us to exploit even further our already well established technical lead over GSK/Domantis," he added. "Also, our Nanobody technology has extensive patent protection and four Nanobody based products are currently in clinical trials."

Domantis is expected to appeal.




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