PIERIS receives EUR 2 million grant from German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Freising, Germany - PIERIS Proteolab AG, a leading biopharmaceutical and protein engineering company, today announced that it successfully participated in the BioChance PLUS competition, a programme initiated last year by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to support medium-sized biotech companies. PIERIS was chosen as one of the first six companies to be granted this award in Germany, based on its therapeutic Anticalin® projects. The award entitles PIERIS to the sum of EUR 2 million over a period of two years.
PIERIS received the grant to validate therapeutic Anticalins® in preclinical development and to develop manufacturing processes against several biological targets in oncology and cardiovascular diseases. PIERIS has generated lipocalin muteins named Anticalins® against many protein and hapten targets with high affinity and specificity and has demonstrated therapeutic efficacy against Digoxin overdosing in a preclinical study. Additionally acute toxicity studies confirmed a good safety profile for Anticalins®.
"We are delighted that we have received this important grant from the BMBF. This will accelerate our internal product development to file our first IND by the end of 2005. We are pursuing two development strategies; a purely antagonistic mode of action in oncology and cardiovascular disease areas as well as a drug targeting strategy with a focus on internalising targets in oncology," stated Martin Pöhlchen, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of PIERIS.
Claus Schalper, the company's Vice President of Finance additionally commented: "The grant will not only strengthen PIERIS's financial position but serves as a further validation of the potential of our Anticalin®-technology."
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