Confo Therapeutics reports grant of two key patents for ConfoBodies™

Ghent, Belgium, 2 December 2019 – Confo Therapeutics, a pioneering biopharma company, today announces that it has been granted two key ConfoBody^TM patents derived from the patent estate known as the “Steyaert patents”.

The Steyaert patents – named after Prof. Jan Steyaert (VIB-VUB), their first-named inventor and scientific founder of Confo Therapeutics – are a series of patents and patent applications that cover the composition-of-matter and various uses of ConfoBodies (single-domain antibodies capable of binding specific protein conformations) in structural biology and drug discovery. Confo Therapeutics holds the exclusive commercial rights to the Steyaert patent estate in the field of GPCR structure determination and drug discovery.

Confo Therapeutics has now obtained a further European patent and a further US patent within the Steyaert patents. The European patent (EP 2 593 792, granted on 13 November 2019) covers composition-of-matter claims for a number of ConfoBodies. This includes the ConfoBody known as “Nb80”, which was generated by Prof. Steyaert and subsequently used by Prof. Brian Kobilka and co-workers at Stanford University to generate the first structure of an active-state G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) conformation. The US patent (US 10,436,796, granted on 8 October 2019) covers methods for generating and producing ConfoBodies, independent of their origin, target or sequence.

Other granted patents and pending applications within the Steyaert patents cover GPCR-ConfoBody complexes, GPCR screening methods in which a ConfoBody is used to keep the GPCR in an active conformation, G_s-stabilizing ConfoBodies, and host cells that are capable of expressing both a ConfoBody and a GPCR.

The Steyaert patents currently comprise around 25 granted patents (including 10 granted US patents and 6 granted European patents) and around 30 patent applications within 7 patent families worldwide.

In addition to the Steyaert patents, Confo Therapeutics also holds an exclusive license for GPCRs to the Megabody^TM technology and associated patent application(s) from VIB-VUB. Megabodies^TM are novel antigen-binding chimeric proteins that are optimized for three-dimensional structural analysis of proteins via high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM).

About Confo Therapeutics

Confo Therapeutics is a pioneering biopharmaceutical company building a portfolio of transformative medicines for the treatment of serious diseases using its proprietary Confo^® technology, a proprietary GPCR conformation-sensitive drug discovery engine.

Confo Therapeutics’ unique approach presents G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in the conformation of interest. This increases screening sensitivity and enables the determination of the 3D structure of the relevant conformation, allowing for the identification of novel chemical starting points and the rational design of new medicines with optimal properties.

As well as developing its own pipeline, Confo Therapeutics has secured revenue-generating drug discovery partnerships with select leading pharma companies. The Company has ongoing collaborations with Lundbeck and Roche.

Confo Therapeutics was spun out of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB) in 2015 and has since raised over €36.7 million from an international investor syndicate (BioGeneration Ventures, Capricorn Partners, Fund+, MINTS, Perceptive Advisors, PMV, QBIC, V-Bio Ventures, VIB and Wellington Partners). The company is headquartered in Ghent and has a second operational site in Brussels.

For more information, visit: www.confotherapeutics.com

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