GHENT, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Confo Therapeutics, an emerging drug discovery company, today announces the appointment of Frank Landolt as its Chief Counsel Legal & IP, effective from 1 January 2019. Frank is joining the Company from Ablynx, now a wholly owned Sanofi company, where he was Vice President Legal & IP and a member of the Executive Committee.
Frank Landolt is a Dutch and European patent attorney and transactional lawyer, and was a key member of Ablynx’s management from 2004 onwards. At Ablynx he was responsible for the Company’s IP strategy and for securing its strong patent estate, and was also involved in negotiating Ablynx’s various partnerships with leading pharma companies. Frank started his career in private practice in the Netherlands, where his clients included major pharmaceutical companies, as well as some of the top biotech companies and research institutions in the Netherlands. From 2000-2004, he was Director of IP and Legal at another Belgian biotech company, Devgen, that was acquired by Syngenta in 2012. Frank holds degrees in chemistry (Leiden University), civil law (Leiden University) and business law (University of Antwerp). Frank was named as one of Managing IP’s ‘Corporate IP stars’ for four years in a row (2015-2018).
Commenting on the appointment, Dr Cedric Ververken, CEO of Confo Therapeutics, said: “I’m pleased to welcome Frank to the Confo team; he has the perfect background and experience to help build the company based on a strong IP and collaboration strategy. Having previously worked together on a number of key deals for Ablynx, I am confident that our productive working relationship will continue to be successful at Confo.”
Frank Landolt, Chief Counsel Legal & IP at Confo Therapeutics, added: “Confo Therapeutics is a unique biotech company, using antibody technology to enable small molecule discovery. I was impressed by how much the team had already accomplished in only three years and I look forward to working with the team to progress the Company to the next level.”
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About Confo Therapeutics
Confo Therapeutics is a VUB-VIB spin-off co-founded in 2015 by VIB and Capricorn Venture Partners with the support of MINTS, PMV, QBIC and V-Bio Ventures. The Company is building a portfolio of first-in-class programs based on its proprietary Confo® technology which makes use of antibody fragments or “Confobodies” to stabilize G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) in a particular conformation of interest as a superior starting point for drug discovery.
GPCRs are attractive drug targets in the treatment of many different conditions, playing an essential part in numerous life processes and influencing diseases.
In addition to developing its own pipeline, Confo Therapeutics is entering into revenue-generating drug discovery partnerships with select pharma companies, on GPCR targets which do not compete with its internal projects. The Company has ongoing collaborations with Lundbeck and Roche.
More info: www.confotherapeutics.com
