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N. 30, November - December 2006
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 | IP in practice
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| Patent of the month
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Answer for HIV
Euroscreen – A private company established in Brussels
(Belgium) that is making progress in the fight against HIV, research,
successful business management and intellectual property strategy. The company
was established as a spin-off from the University of Brussels by three
professors: Jacques Dumont, Marc Parmentier and Gilbert Vassart. Since its
establishment, Euroscreen has raised more than eight million euros in equity
funding and grants. Euroscreen currently has 80 employees of which 50 are in
R&D.
The most significant achievement was the discovery of the
G-Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR), known as CCR5 (a chemokine receptor) role.
As Professor Marc Parmentier said: “In 1996, we discovered that the
GPCR, to which certain HIV-blocking chemokines bind, is the CCR5 receptor.
Subsequent research confirmed the link between CCR5 and CD4, and its crucial
role in the processes of HIV infection and immunity. Since then, the CCR5
receptor has become a target of potential great importance in the hunt for
drugs that can prevent HIV infection.”
Since that time, the company has become a world leader in G-protein
coupled receptors (GPCRs). Its market achievements are its research, as well as
an impressive intellectual property strategy. On one hand, Euroscreen has
obtained knowledge through license agreements signed with research units such
as: Brussels University, the University of Georgia Research Foundation, the
University of Virginia Patent Foundation and the University of Toronto. On the
other hand, it commercialised its products by creating a patent portfolio and
signing license agreements with leading biopharmaceutical companies: Alchemia,
Galapagos, Merck & Co, Nanosyn, Solvay, Syngenta and UCB.
Euroscreen – company website
Explanation of CCR5 role
Euroscreen patent
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