Scandinavia Serves Up Two Partners For Alexion, In Its Rare Disease Sweet-Spot

Leading US biotech Alexion is to collaborate with two European biotechs, Affibody and Zealand, on early-stage products for rare diseases, involving bivalent antibody-mimetic scaffolds and novel peptides.  

Scaffolding
New protein scaffolds are being used to develop antibody-mimetics • Source: Shutterstock

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. is continuing to search out potential novel therapies in the complement and rare diseases spaces, areas it knows well, with the latest candidates expected to come from collaborations with two Scandinavian biotechs, Sweden’s Affibody AB and Denmark’s Zealand Pharma AS, in deals worth a potential combined value of $1.3bn.

Boston, MA-based Alexion has entered into other tie-ups in the rare diseases area over the past year or so, involving...

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