Utrecht & Leiden, The Netherlands, January 27, 2012 – Three Dutch biotech companies with complementary activities and expertise announced today that they will collaborate to develop a biomarker assay for Alzheimer’s disease. This initiative is awarded with a grant from IPC-BioFarmind.
Crossbeta Biosciences, a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of drug treatments for misfolded protein diseases and a lead program in Alzheimer’s Disease, Good Biomarker Sciences, a contract research company developing and performing diagnostic assays and test strategies and U-Protein Express, a contract manufacturing organization developing and producing recombinant proteins and antibodies, join forces with the aim to develop a test that can provide a tool for Alzheimer’s disease for early detection and monitoring effects of treatment.
Alzheimer’s disease is the main cause of dementia and affects a large and rapidly growing number of primarily elderly people. Treating this highly debilitating disease by reversing the toxic effects in the brain is not possible yet. A diagnostic test would be a great aid to enable early treatment when damage is still limited, allowing evaluation of treatment strategies and thus helping to preserve quality of life.
“The grant from IPC-BioFarmind is exactly the trigger we needed to effectively kick our collaboration off and to initiate this joint project.” “With our matching capabilities and the support from academic groups we give this biomarker development effort the best chance of success.” “We are very excited about the joint development potential of our teams.” “Combining protein production, protein misfolding technology and biomarker development expertise makes this Alzheimer biomarker program unique.” are some of the comments made by the CEOs of Crossbeta Biosciences, Good Biomarker Biosciences and U-Protein Express.