S-TARget: Allergopharma and S‐TARget therapeutics conclude licensing agreement

Allergopharma, the Merck Business Unit Allergy, and S-TARget therapeutics (S-TARget), an Austrian biotechnology company which develops therapeutic preparations for all forms of allergies, have signed an exclusive licensing agreement. The main focus of this cooperation is the use of S-TARget’s S-TIR™ technology and the associated development of a new generation of products for the causal treatment of allergies. The parties have agreed on confidentiality regarding the general terms and financial details of the transaction.

"We are pleased to have gained S-TARget as a partner. For Allergopharma, this is an important building block for our innovation-oriented strategy,” said Marco Linari, CEO Allergopharma/Merck Business Unit Allergy. “With S-TARget's technology platform, we have great potential available to develop new therapeutic forms for the most significant allergens, such as dust mites and pollen. We will now be working very hard on the further development of the active ingredients based on the licensed technology platform. Our objective is to develop marke t-ready products as quickly as possible, so that we can better help patients suffering from allergies."

Christof Langer, CEO and co-founder of S-TARget, elaborated: "With strong positioning in the allergy sector, its close connections to the medical field and expertise in highly modern technologies for the development and manufacture of allergy preparations, Allergopharma is an excellent match for us. This cooperation gives us both the opportunity to advance the development of our innovative technology and bring new therapies onto the market."

With the signing of the agreement, Allergopharma, one of the leading manufacturers of therapeutics for specific immunotherapy for type 1 allergies like hay fever or allergic asthma, gains worldwide rights for the development and marketing of the envisaged products on the basis of S-TARget‘s S-TIR™ technology platform. Through this partnership, Allergopharma is investing more heavily in research, with the objective of developing a new generation of products for specific allergy therapeutics. Merck is continuing to invest in the highly attractive therapeutic area of allergies and is focused on innovation and the next generation of allergy therapy.

The market for allergy therapeutics (without symptomatic drugs) is a global growth market, in which Allergopharma is already one of today's market leaders. The worldwide growth expected by market observers is, on one hand, due to the increasing number of allergy sufferers and, on the other hand, is based on the increasing prevalence of specific immunotherapy in many emerging economies.

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