Probiodrug and Crossbeta Biosciences enter into a partnership in the field of Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers
Licensing and supply agreement is based on Crossbeta’s proprietary technology and supports Probiodrug’s biomarker development activities
Probiodrug, a German biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutic solutions to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD), has formed an agreement with Crossbeta Biosciences to use the Dutch biotech firm's proprietary technology in support of Probiodrug’s biomarker development activities.
AD, the most common form of dementia affecting 26 million people worldwide, is characterised by misfolded beta-amyloid and tau proteins. The oligomeric forms of these proteins play a pivotal role in the patho-physiology of the disease.
Oligomer-specific research and the development of therapeutics, biomarkers and diagnostics is very challenging due to the inherent instability of these protein aggregates. Crossbeta’s proprietary stabilisation technology generates pure and functional preparations of oligomeric protein species and thereby overcomes this problem, enabling highly reproducible and well-controlled assays for pre-clinical and clinical R&D.
Inge Lues, Chief Development Officer of Probiodrug, said: 'The potential of Crossbeta’s unique technology has significant impact to overcome the challenge of establishing and validating sensitive and specific assays for Abeta- and pGlu-Abeta-oligomers to be used in the clinical studies of Probiodrug’s lead candidate, Glutaminyl Cyclase (QC) inhibitor PQ912.'
Guus Scheefhals, Chief Executive of Crossbeta, added: 'As a clinical stage company, Probiodrug is a particularly important partner in our growing collaborative network. We look forward to contributing towards the development of this promising therapeutic approach targeting AD.'