partnering opportunities

Pieris’ Anticalin® technology is extremely versatile and has a wealth of potential applications – too many, in fact, for Pieris to successfully exploit alone. Pieris therefore seeks partnerships with companies wishing to explore the potential of novel, innovative human proteins as the drugs and diagnostic tools of the future.

As well as seeking partners with access to well-validated human disease targets for collaborative drug/diagnostic discovery, Pieris is also exploring novel ways of improving and enhancing Anticalins® as products – for example, accessing cytotoxic proteins or other agents that may be coupled to Anticalins® for targeted cell killing. Pieris is willing to conduct feasibility studies in collaboration, to explore potential complementarity of such enabling technologies with the Anticalin® platform.

Pieris is developing its own therapeutic programs which it intends to outlicense after completion of at least preclinical proof of concept studies, and in certain cases after completion of phase I clinical trials.

Please contact Pieris at info@pieris-ag.com for further information on these programs, or to discuss how an Anticalin®-based discovery collaboration could be customised for your pipeline needs.

how Pieris works with partners

Pieris is primarily focused on accessing well-validated targets as the basis for its collaborator-sponsored programs. Even if such target(s) are in the public domain and not the subject of patent protection, ideally they will have been clinically proven to have a causative role in human disease. This enables Pieris to selectively identify Anticalins® that function via modulation of the disease mechanism of action.

In instances where a causative role of a target has not been proven yet the target is selectively associated with a disease condition, Pieris adapts its Anticalins® as fusion proteins for the delivery of secondary effector warheads. Internalizing targets are of particular interest to Pieris in this regard, to allow the payload to be delivered inside the diseased cell.

In its Anticalin®-based discovery programs, Pieris at this point in time does not transfer Anticalin® libraries to its partners. Pieris' scientists have established substantial know-how around the technology required for a timely and successful completion of such a discovery program. However, at the forefront of most of its collaborations, Pieris would carry out a feasibility study with defined goals, in order to determine the key properties required of an Anticalin® candidate.

In the case of companies owning or having access to validated disease targets, Pieris conducts Anticalin®-based discovery research on their behalf. The partner company receives a license to the Anticalin® technology in return for a technology access fee and research support funding. Once Pieris has created an Anticalin® candidate of the desired product profile, it is transfered to the partner for further validation, pre-clinical and clinical development, sales and marketing. Pieris would expect to receive milestone payments from the partner as Anticalin®-based products proceed through clinical development, as well as royalties on eventual product sales.