Orion and Abilita Therapeutics announce research collaboration and option to license agreement to develop innovative antibody therapeutics

/EIN News/ -- ORION CORPORATION
PRESS RELEASE
18 DECEMBER 2024 at 17.00 EET 

        
Orion and Abilita Therapeutics announce research collaboration and option to license agreement to develop innovative antibody therapeutics

Orion Corporation (“Orion”) and Abilita Therapeutics (“Abilita”) announced today that they have entered into a research collaboration and option to license agreement to develop innovative antibody therapeutics in the areas of oncology and pain.

Under the terms of the agreement, Orion gains access to Abilita’s proprietary Enabled Membrane Protein (EMP™) technology for the discovery of novel antibody therapeutics to challenging GPCR (G protein coupled receptors) and ion channel targets. The collaboration includes an option to license an antibody discovery program in Abilita’s preclinical pipeline with the potential for expansion into two additional programs in the future. Orion will be responsible for the selection of additional targets , funding of the co-research activities, and will be solely responsible for the development and commercialisation of up to three novel antibodies.

Abilita is eligible to receive upfront payments as well as development and sales milestone payments for each discovery program. Abilita is also entitled to receive royalties on commercial sales generated from the three antibody programs.

“We are looking forward to this exciting collaboration with Abilita. Orion is dedicated to improve the lives of the patients through innovative R&D and gaining access to Abilita’s proprietary Enabled Membrane Protein (EMP™) technology provides us new opportunities on our path to develop novel therapies”, said Outi Vaarala, Senior Vice President, Innovative Medicines and Research & Development at Orion.

“This collaboration combines Abilita’s strength in discovering breakthrough antibody therapeutics for challenging membrane protein targets with Orion’s proven expertise in oncology and pain, clinical development, and commercialisation,” said Mauro Mileni, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Abilita Therapeutics. “We are excited to leverage our EMP™ platform, the most advanced directed evolution approach, to unlock targets to generate high-value therapeutics. The partnership with Orion allows us to accelerate promising therapeutics into the clinic as part of our broader plan to advance our pipeline.”

About Abilita
Abilita Therapeutics, Inc. is a privately held, innovation-driven biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing therapeutics targeting the most challenging and medically important multi-span membrane proteins (MMPs) across a variety of indications. GPCRs, ion channels, and transporters are the targets of about 60% of today’s medicines, highlighting their medical importance. Abilita Therapeutics’ validated drug discovery engine builds on the foundation of its powerful EMP™ target evolution platform and deep membrane protein expertise to a suite of internal discovery technologies to create important therapeutics for previously undruggable targets. For more information, visit www.abilitatx.com.        

About Orion
Orion is a globally operating Finnish pharmaceutical company – a builder of well-being for over a hundred years. We develop, manufacture and market human and veterinary pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients. Orion has an extensive portfolio of proprietary and generic medicines and consumer health products. The core therapy areas of our pharmaceutical R&D are oncology and pain. Proprietary products developed by Orion are used to treat cancer, neurological diseases and respiratory diseases, among others. Orion's net sales in 2023 amounted to EUR 1,190 million and the company had about 3,600 employees at the end of the year. Orion's A and B shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki.

                                                 
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Antti Haapalinna, Vice President, External Science & Partnering R&D
tel. +358 10 426 7670 

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