Zymenex receives 500.000 dkr from the Advisory Council on Technology for a collaborative technology with Danish Technological Institute

Zymenex A/S has received a grant of 500.000 dkr from the Advisory Council on Technology, The Research and Innovation Authorities, to use in collaboration with the Danish Technological Institute regarding a project "Methods for analysing oligosaccharides".

The collaborative partner in the project is Hans Christian Beck from the Life Science Division, Danish Technological Institute in Kolding, DK.

The aim of the project is to develop mass spectrometry-based methods for characterizing and quantitating, oligosacchrides in blood and urine. The goal is to be able to measure levels of oligosacchrides in normal subjects aa well as in untreated and treated alpha-Mannosidosis patients, in blood and urine, collected from both healthy subjects (control group) and from patients.

About alpha-Mannosidosis

Alpha-Mannosidosis is a rare inborn disorder caused by the lack of the lysosomal enzyme α-Mannosidase, resulting in mental retardation, skeletal changes, hearing loss, recurrent infections and progression to early death. The children are often born apparently normal, and their conditions worsen progressively, without any possibility to prevent this evolution. In the children that are born healthy, a therapy initiated at an early age could contribute to a normal development. Today, the most promising therapy for lysosomal storage disorders is enzyme replacement therapy (ERT); where the enzyme lacking in the patient is introduced into the blood stream, from where it is internalised by the cells and reaches the lysosomes, acting as the endogeneous enzyme.

About Zymenex

Zymenex A/S is a Scandinavian biopharmaceutical company, founded in 1998, with headquarters in Hillerød north of Copenhagen, Denmark and research laboratories in Stockholm, Sweden. The company is focused on research and development of pharmaceutical products for the treatment of rare, genetic diseases, for which there is no treatment today and which, due to the small patient populations, fall within "Orphan Diseases" and the Orphan Drug Acts.

Zymenex is developing several human recombinant enzymes, that can be used for therapy within the specific disease areas and the Zymenex pipeline includes the recombinant derived human enzymes Lamazym (rhLaman) and Galaczym (rhGALC), for the treatment of the lysosomal diseases alpha-Mannosidosis and Krabbe Disease. Lamazym is presently in late pre-clinical development and Galaczym in early pre-clinical development.

Enzyme replacement therapy is a well-known treatment method and there are a number of products on the market today that validates the company concept.

Zymenex is supported financially by the Danish venture capital investor Sunstone Capital.

About DTI

Danish Technological Institute (DTI) The Danish Technological Institute is a self-owned and non-profit institution that develop, apply and disseminate research- and technologically-based knowledge for the Danish and International business sectors. DTI is approved by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation as a GTS-institute.

The Proteomics group at the Danish Technological Institute, Life Science Division (DTI-LIFE) has several years of expertise on research and collaborations projects with both the industry and academia in the development of advanced mass spectrometry-based methods and strategies for the analysis of large biomolecules including proteins and their post-translational modifications such as glycosylations and phosphorylations. has been involved in a variety of R&D projects spanning from the characterization of antifungal proteins from seeds, identification of stem cell markers to mode-of action/mechanisms of action studies of anti-cancer drugs.

 

 

Sincerely

 

Zymenex A/S

 

June 2010

 

Further information:

Zymenex A/S, Roskildevej 12C, DK-3400 Hillerød, Denmark, President, CEO Dr. Jens Fogh, DVM, + 45 48 25 00 54

Zymenex A/S Roskildevej 12 C
3400 Hillerød, DK
Tel  +45 48250054
Fax  +45 48251054
Affiliate Sweden Dalénum 13
181 70 Lidingö, S
Tel  +46 8 7670203
Fax  +46 8 7670233

© 2004 Zymenex A/S