ThromboGenics NV (Euronext Brussels: THR) and BioInvent International (OMXS: BINV) announce today that they won “Licensing Deal of the Year” at the Scrip Awards 2009, presented last night.  The award recognises the major partnership deal that ThromboGenics and BioInvent signed with Roche for their novel anti-cancer monoclonal antibody TB-403 (anti-PIGF).  It acknowledges the achievement of both companies in crafting a licensing deal that has both monetary and strategic benefits to all parties.  

The Scrip Awards are one of the biotech and pharmaceutical industry’s most prestigious and highly contested international awards, and they are chosen by a panel of senior executives from the biotech and pharma industry.

Under the terms of the deal with Roche, ThromboGenics and its co-development partner BioInvent received an upfront payment of €50 million, with an additional €450 million in potential milestones, as well as double digit royalties on future product sales.  The working relationship with Roche is continuing to progress well and recently ThromboGenics and BioInvent announced positive results in a Phase Ib trial of TB-403 in patients with advanced solid tumours.  The results showed positive safety and tolerability data.  ThromboGenics, who discovered TB-403, receives 60% and BioInvent 40% of all revenue from the deal.

Patrik De Haes, CEO of ThromboGenics, commented, “We are delighted to have won the Licensing Deal of the Year at this prestigious awards event. The revenue from the TB-403 deal with Roche has enabled us to concentrate on our strategy to transform ThromboGenics into a successful integrated Company focused on cutting-edge ophthalmic medicines.  ThromboGenics continues to go from strength to strength, and the award is a testament to our dedication to novel science.  It highlights the significant achievements and progress the Company has made since its conception.  We look forward to an exciting year ahead, when the results from our Phase III study for microplasmin will be presented.”

Svein Mathisen, CEO of BioInvent, also commented, “Our co-development agreement with ThromboGenics, which resulted in the deal with Roche, has been extremely productive and positive, and we are pleased that this has been recognised by our peers through this award. The deal has strengthened BioInvent’s financial position, and together with revenues from other collaborations has enabled us to rapidly progress our in-house antibody development programmes. We will continue to benefit from having secured a partner of such high calibre for one of our key programmes. The success of this deal also underlines our strengths as an antibody development company, which is reflected in the deals we have continued to secure both for our antibody discovery platform and our development and manufacturing capabilities.”

www.thrombogenics.com.

www.bioinvent.com