Boehringer Ingelheim and Philogen collaborate to investigate novel treatment approaches for Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Ingelheim, Germany and Siena, Italy, 12 October, 2015 – Boehringer Ingelheim and Philogen announced today, that they will collaborate on investigating novel treatment approaches for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). As part of the collaborative effort, the partners have agreed on an exploratory trial investigating novel immunotherapy concepts for relapsed AML patients.

Despite being a rare disease, AML is one of the most common types of leukemia in adults, accounting for approximately one third of all adult leukemias in the Western world. There is a particularly high medical need in AML, as it has one of the lowest survival rates of all leukemias. It predominantly occurs in older adults; the average age of newly diagnosed patients is 65 years and the prognosis worsens with increasing age, with a median survival of six months or less following diagnosis in older patients.

“We look forward to working with Philogen – a highly innovative biotechnology company -, and to progressing our clinical understanding of treatment strategies for AML” said Martin Stefanic, Head Clinical Development Hemato-Oncology, at Boehringer Ingelheim. “This new collaboration adds a highly innovative new approach to our existing broad hematological cancer pipeline.”

Dr. Duccio Neri, CEO of Philogen commented “With its impressive success in bringing innovative new therapies to market and its broad experience in oncology research and development Boehringer Ingelheim is the right partner, to accelerate the transition of our novel targeted therapies into clinical development.”.

Further details about the planned clinical trial will be communicated at a forthcoming scientific meeting. Financial details will not be communicated.

About Philogen
Philogen is a Swiss-Italian integrated biotechnology company founded in 1996, with the mission to develop innovative biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of angiogenesis-related disorders. Angiogenesis, i.e. the formation of new blood vessels, is a characteristic feature of many severe pathologies such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and age-related macular degeneration.

The company has been a pioneer in the isolation, engineering and clinical development of lead products capable of targeting angiogenesis in-vivo and has been the first in the world to demonstrate that human monoclonal antibodies, specific for a marker of angiogenesis, can efficiently and selectively target the tumor neo-vasculature both in animal models and in cancer patients.

At present, Philogen has four promising anti-cancer antibody derivatives and an antibody derivative for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in clinical studies. Two registrational studies are in planning. Philogen`s Zurich-based daughter company Philochem serving as the R&D unit isolates the most promising candidate products, while in Siena (Italy) the pharmaceuticals are produced according to GMP standards and advanced to clinical trials.

Philogen generates revenue from a diversified range of activities, has signed agreements with major pharmaceutical companies and owns a diversified portfolio of international patents. For more information please visit www.philogen.com

Boehringer Ingelheim
The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, Boehringer Ingelheim operates globally with 146 affiliates and a total of more than 47,700 employees. The focus of the family-owned company, founded in 1885, is researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing new medications of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.

Social responsibility is an important element of the corporate culture at Boehringer Ingelheim. This includes worldwide involvement in social projects, such as the initiative “Making more Health” and caring for the employees. Respect, equal opportunities and reconciling career and family form the foundation of the mutual cooperation. In everything it does, the company focuses on environmental protection and sustainability.

In 2014, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of about 13.3 billion euros. R&D expenditure corresponds to 19.9 per cent of its net sales.

For more information please visit www.boehringer-ingelheim.com

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