Ipsen and Hannover Medical School announce new research alliance

Ipsen has announced a new research partnership with Hannover Medical School that aims to develop new therapies for serious neurological, endocrinological or oncological disease.

The research project aims to test recombinant botulinum neurotoxin proteins that could be used to affect intracellular molecular pathways with targeted secretion inhibitors (TSIs), with Dr Thomas Binz at the Hannover Medical School set to lead the project.

Ipsen's proprietary platform of TSI proteins is selectively able to deliver neurotoxin endopeptidase to defined target cells, thus inhibiting pathological secretion from the cell in question.

Ipsen will support research in Dr Binz's laboratory for 30 months, with Hannover Medical School receiving research and development milestone payments and royalties on sales for any medical treatment emerging from the collaborative programme.

Dr Claude Bertrand, executive vice-president for research and development and chief scientific officer at Ipsen, said: "Ipsen is delighted to enter into a partnership with the Hannover Medical School, which has an outstanding record for excellence in medical research."

This comes after the firm agreed a multi-year research alliance agreement with Harvard University earlier this month.