Pieris progresses proprietary asthma program

Pieris AG, a bio-pharmaceutical company developing Anticalins, a novel class of targeted human protein therapeutics, today announced significant progress in validating novel, effective products for the potential treatment of asthma.

In studies of its proprietary PRS-060 Anticalin candidate, the Company reports that the protein can be effectively delivered to its target of action via the lungs.

PRS-060 has been selected by Pieris as being specific for a target implicated in a mechanism underlying asthma and other atopic diseases. The mode of action of the Anticalin(R) candidate is via modulation of the site of binding for multiple ligands.

"This important milestone demonstrates the exciting potential of Anticalin-based products for the treatment of respiratory disease," said Dr Andreas Hohlbaum, Director of Science and Preclinical Development of Pieris. "In a simple preclinical biodistribution study quantitating PRS-060 Anticalin delivered via a microspray device, we have already observed about 10-fold higher PRS-060 uptake than that typically obtained with monoclonal antibodies. Our findings have demonstrated the potential to deliver Anticalins through alternative routes to injection and thereby exploit their intrinsic robustness and stability."

"This study confirms the ability of PRS-060 to be formulated in a way ideally suited to its application in asthma, namely in an inhaled preparation for home use," noted Evert Kueppers, Pieris Chief Executive Officer. "These findings continue to support the view that our Anticalin(R) platform, including its recent validation for dual targeting purposes, has enormous potential for application to human diseases that are currently inadequately treated."

The data will be presented for the first time on August 9th 2007 at IBC's Drug Discovery Technology Conference in Boston, MA, USA.

Pieris is now actively seeking development partners for this program with specialization in product development for respiratory diseases, including asthma.