Pharming Starts Collaboration With Solvay And Academic Groups On Parkinson And Alzheimer Disease

Top Institute Pharma supports program ’from dysregulated brain targets towards novel therapeutics’





Leiden, The Netherlands.- Biotech company Pharming Group NV (“Pharming”) (NYSE Euronext: PHARM) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary DNage BV (“DNage”) will participate in a TI Pharma consortium that brings together leading researchers from academia and industry in the field of neurodegeneration and drug development. The collaboration exemplifies Pharming’s strategy to expand its research engine and to strengthen its product pipeline.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two commercial partners DNage and Solvay Pharmaceuticals BV will collaborate with eight top class academic groups to embark on a four year project with a total budget of € 6.8 million. The program will be supported by TI Pharma who will contribute approximately € 3.4 million with the remaining costs to be divided over the ten partners in the consortium.

The project entails a large-scale, groundbreaking effort to identify target molecules that can serve as the basis for the development of novel medicines for Parkinson and Alzheimer disease. DNage will use its accelerated ageing mouse models that are based on its intellectual property linking DNA damage to the development of ageing diseases. These animal models provide excellent opportunities and unique tools for in-depth analysis of the onset and progression of neurodegeneration and moreover, allow pharmaceutical intervention studies at any stage of neurodegeneration. The consortium will further have access to a large collection of human Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s brain tissue, and through integration of multidisciplinary expertise and innovative technologies, DNage and partners aim to identify dysregulated genes and proteins that may serve as potential drug targets or biomarkers relevant for these serious diseases.

Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia and is marked by progressive memory loss and decline in mental functions while Parkinson’s is a neurological disorder that gradually affects muscular coordination and control of movement. Age is the strongest predictor for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and as a result of a growing and ageing world population, it is predicted that neurodegenerative diseases will take over cancer as the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease. The current market value for neurodegenerative diseases is worth over € 12 billion per year and is anticipated to grow by an unprecedented amount over the next years.

About Pharming Group NV
Pharming Group NV is developing innovative products for the treatment of genetic disorders, ageing diseases, specialty products for surgical indications, intermediates for various applications and nutritional products. Pharming has two products in late stage development - Rhucin® (recombinant human C1 inhibitor) for Hereditary Angioedema and human lactoferrin for use in food products (GRAS notification under review by US FDA). The advanced technologies of the Company include innovative platforms for the production of protein therapeutics, technology and processes for the purification and formulation of these products, as well as technologies in the field of tissue repair (via its collaboration with Novathera) and DNA repair (via DNage). Additional information is available on the Pharming website, www.pharming.com and on www.dnage.nl.

About TI Pharma
Within TI Pharma, consortia of industrial and academic research teams conduct groundbreaking, cross-disciplinary research projects that fit into the Priority Medicines program of the WHO. Each year, the Dutch government funds the top institute to a tune of € 30 million. The pharmaceutical industry and academia each contribute an additional € 15 million per year. TI Pharma is becoming an international leader in (bio)pharmaceutical research, training and education. TI Pharma’s fellows are trained in understanding the intricacies of the entire drug R&D process. For more information: www.tipharma.com.

This press release contains forward looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward looking statements. The press release also appears in Dutch. In the event of any inconsistency, the English version will prevail over the Dutch version.