Euroscreen Wins Opposition Related to its CCR5 Patent Claims

Euroscreen SA today announced its success in its patent battle against Progenics Inc.

Brussels, Belgium (PRWEB) March 7, 2008 -- Euroscreen SA today announced its success in a patent battle against Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed an opposition against the European patent 0 811 063 B1 owned by Euroscreen and requested to revoke the entire patent and more particularly the claims related to CCR5 antibodies.

Following the Oral Proceeding, the European Patent Office (EPO) disregarded all grounds of opposition raised by Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. and confirmed that the Euroscreen patent complied with the European patentability requirements.

The antibody claims in this patent protect any antibody products which specifically bind to human CCR5 and their uses in any therapeutic applications. In addition to those antibody claims the Euroscreen patent also protects the CCR5 sequences, vectors, cell lines and screening methods to single out compounds that modulate the CCR5 activity.

Commenting on the announcement, Vincent Lannoy Business Development and Licensing Manager of Euroscreen, said: "This EPO's decision strengthens and confirms the validity of Euroscreen's CCR5 patent rights."

For further licensing Information, please contact:
Euroscreen S.A.
Tel: +32 71 348 500

email: LicensingBD @ euroscreen.com

Vincent Lannoy, Ph.D.
Business Development and Licensing Manager

Jean Combalbert, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer

About Euroscreen S.A.
Euroscreen is a privately held preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Brussels Belgium, focused on the discovery and development of small molecule drugs for unmet medical needs. Founded in 1994, as a spin-off of the "Université Libre de Bruxelles", initially developing and commercializing G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCR) reagents, Euroscreen is now developing a pipeline of preclinical candidates targeting proprietary GPCR, such as CCR5, as well as several preclinical-stage collaborations with partners, using its worldwide recognized expertise on this critical class of drug targets. Euroscreen pursues a dual business model strategy of combining its internal programs on high value targets (Euroscreen DRUG DISCOVERY) with its fully dedicated Business Unit (Euroscreen FAST) providing GPCR customized screening and other services for biotech and pharmaceutical companies around the world. Euroscreen has developed a broad target portfolio for licensing intellectual property rights to pharmaceutical companies for the development of therapeutic drugs that act through these targets, including CCR5, Chemerin receptor, GPR43, GPR7/8, ORL1-R, FPRL2, purinergic receptors (P2Y4, P2Y11 and P2Y13) and SHIP2. Euroscreen has discovery and licensing partnerships with Alchemia, AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Cephalon, GNF, Grunenthal, HGS, ICOS owned by Lilly, Medarex, Novartis and Pfizer.

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