The Past, Present and Future: Ablynx’s Success Story

Fintan Walton talks to Edwin Moses, CEO of Ablynx, about the success that the company has enjoyed since its inception, and his plans for it going forward. Edwin talks about the importance of location in relation to the financing environment, and the difference in the ease of raising cash through an IPO depending upon your location. He also expands upon Ablynx’s commercial strategy in terms of partnering with big pharma, acquiring other technologies, targets and products, and Ablynx’s goal of becoming a fully integrated, independent pharmaceutical company in its own right.

About Edwin Moses

Edwin Moses began his commercial career at Amersham International, Enzymatix and Raggio-Italgene. Then, as CEO from 1993 to 2001, and, later, as Chairman, he was responsible for the growth of Oxford Asymmetry through a series of venture rounds, cumulating in a flotation on the London Stock Exchange in 1998, at a value of €175 M (£120 M, US$205); this was followed by the sale of the company to Evotec Biosystems in 2000 for €460 M (£316 M, US$474.7 M). Over the past 5 years Edwin has sat on the Board (primarily as Chairman) of over 15 European life sciences companies. Edwin has been Chairman of Ablynx since 2004, and, in March 2006, he became Ablynx’s CEO.

About Ablynx

Ablynx is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of Nanobodies®, a novel class of therapeutic proteins based on single-domain antibody fragments, for the treatment of a range of serious and life-threatening human diseases. The company is developing a portfolio of Nanobody-based therapeutic programmes in a number of major disease areas, including inflammation, thrombosis, oncology and Alzheimer’s disease. Ablynx has generated Nanobodies against more than 100 different disease targets, and has characterised potent antagonists in vitro against 20 different targets.