Zurich, Switzerland, June 22, 2009 -- Covagen (CH) and Roche (CH) announced today that they have entered a collaboration agreement under which Covagen will use its protein engineering technology to isolate Fynomers – a novel class of protein-based drugs - binding to undisclosed targets provided by Roche. Fynomers delivered by Covagen will be further tested and evaluated by Roche to discover potential new treatments for patients with unmet medical needs. The financial terms of the collaboration agreement were not disclosed.
Dr. Julian Bertschinger, CEO and co-founder of Covagen commented: “We are proud to enter a collaboration with Roche, one of the leading science-based healthcare companies in the field of biopharmaceuticals.” Dr. Dragan Grabulovski, CSO and co-founder of Covagen added: “This collaboration with Roche represents a further step to establish Covagen’s Fynomers as new binding proteins for a variety of applications in drug discovery.”
About Roche
Roche plays a pioneering role in healthcare. As an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, we contribute on a broad range of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche is providing the first products that are tailored to the needs of specific patient groups. Our mission today and tomorrow is to create added value in healthcare by focusing on our expertise in diagnostics and pharmaceuticals.
About Covagen
Covagen is developing next generation protein drugs for the treatment of diseases by using its Fynomer technology. This technology has been developed at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zurich (Switzerland). Covagen's innovative platform comprises a novel single domain protein scaffold which - in analogy to antibodies - can be engineered to yield high affinity binding proteins (Fynomers) that can be used for therapeutic applications.