ISA Pharmaceuticals and Prosensa receive Mibiton funding for peptide manufacturing facility

May 12, 2011

Leiden, The Netherlands, April 26th , 2011 – ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a leader in the development of immunotherapeutic products for oncology and infectious diseases, today announced that Mibiton supports ISA and Prosensa to further enhance their respective technology platforms. The Shared Life Sciences facility includes a state-of-the art peptide manufacturing unit. ISA Pharmaceuticals is an innovative clinical stage company focusing on the development of immunotherapeutics. By using the breakthrough 'synthetic long peptides' (SLP®) technology, the company is developing novel treatments to treat cancer patients. ISA's lead compound in clinical development is an immunotherapeutic product to combat human papilloma virus-induced diseases in general and for cervical cancer and vulvar and anal intraepithelial neoplasias (VIN and AIN) in particular. According to CEO Gerard Platenburg, the peptide synthesis facility will enable ISA to further develop in-house synthesizing capabilities enabling the physical, chemical and biological characterization of (pre-) clinical drug leads. "This peptide synthesizing facility will significantly reduce our preclinical development track", he says. Prosensa is an innovative Dutch biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of RNA modulating therapeutics correcting gene expression in diseases with largely unmet medical needs, in particular neuromuscular disorders. Prosensa's focus is on developing a treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. About ISA ISA Pharmaceuticals is dedicated to fighting cancer and infectious diseases by providing novel immunotherapeutics based on its proprietary SLP® technology to activate and employ the patient's own immune system. Its most advanced product is a highly efficacious therapeutic product against HPV-induced lesions. The company was founded in 2004 by Aglaia Oncology Fund and has its roots in the ground-breaking research performed by the group of the internationally renowned tumor immunologist Professor Kees Melief. R&D is performed in close collaboration with the Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands. www.isa-pharma.com. About Mibiton The Mibiton Foundation with its main office in The Hague, The Netherlands, enables Dutch Life Sciences SMEs to exploit state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. With its three funding programs Share, Solo and Science the Mibiton foundation targets both collaborating SMEs and individual (start-up) Life Sciences companies which are not able to finance their facilities using commercial funding. The Mibiton Share program is co-funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. The Mibiton Science program is co-funded by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative. ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V. Gerard Platenburg CEO Tel: + 31 (0) 6 53439090 E-mail: platenburg@isa-pharma.com