Tillotts Pharma AG signs license agreement on antibody technology with Inven2

RHEINFELDEN, Switzerland, January 22, 2018 - Inven2 AS (Inven2), a technology transfer and innovation company based in Oslo, Norway, and Tillotts Pharma AG (Tillotts), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zeria Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Zeria) today announced that they have signed a license agreement granting Tillotts certain rights to a proprietary antibody backbone technology developed by Stian Foss, Inger Sandlie and Jan Terje Andersen at the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital (the Institutions). The partnership is governed by a license agreement, and includes specific analyses conducted by the Institutions to aid in the lead candidate selection.

The technology originates from one of the most active scientific groups at University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital with regards to developing valuable inventions. For Tillotts, the license agreement is an important step in furthering the company’s mission of offering gastrointestinal (GI) healthcare professionals innovative treatment solutions that can improve patients’ well-being and quality of life. The partnership with Tillotts is a very important milestone for the technology in question, as it will create a very important series of proof-of-concept studies concerning the technology. “We are very pleased with forming this partnership tailored to the disease areas of prime interest to Tillotts, and we are looking forward to work together with Tillotts and provide the support necessary for the progression of the technology”, says Jørund Sollid, BD&L at Inven2.

Head of The Laboratory of Adaptive Immunity and Homeostasis at Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo, Jan Terje Andersen, commented, “We are very excited to have entered into this licensing agreement with Tillotts, a company with excellent capabilities in the field of gastroenterology. The agreement recognizes the true value of our technology platform, and we eagerly look forward to strengthen our collaboration. This milestone is a direct result of focused work by our research team over several years in close collaboration with Inven2. We are thankful for support from both the Research Council of Norway’s BIOTEK2021 programme as well as innovation grants from the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority that has supported the development of this technology.”    

Johannes Spleiss, Chief Scientific Officer at Tillotts commented, “The time between the first meeting with the Oslo researchers and the implementation of this very important antibody technology into our preclinical compound TP10 was less than a year. This is proof of the dedication and professionalism at both Inven2 and Tillotts. The results obtained so far with this highly innovative approach are striking, and we are determined to use this technology as part of our lead compound TP10 going into the First-In-Human studies. We are convinced that this therapy will eventually play an important role in the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).”