Lund, Sweden March 29, 2021 Hansa Biopharma AB “Hansa” (Nasdaq Stockholm: HNSA), a pioneer in enzyme technology for rare immunological conditions, today announced that they have entered into a preclinical research collaboration agreement with argenx BV to evaluate the therapeutic potential of combining the two companies’ IgG-modulating technologies.

The preclinical research collaboration is set up to explore the potential of combining imlifidase, Hansa’s IgG antibody-cleaving enzyme, and efgartigimod, argenx’s FcRn antagonist, which are both in development for indications known to be driven by disease-causing IgGs. A combination of imlifidase and efgartigimod could potentially be used in both the acute and chronic setting of autoimmune diseases and transplantation. 

Under the preclinical research collaboration agreement, both parties will contribute equally in terms of resource allocation and will share all intellectual property and data developed through the collaboration. Both parties will maintain exclusive rights to their respective technologies and products.

This is information that Hansa Biopharma AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, at 20:00 CET on March 29 2021.

About imlifidase
Imlifidase is an enzyme derived from the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, with the ability to specifically target and cleave all classes of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. Imlifidase has a rapid onset of action, cleaving IgG-antibodies and inhibiting their activity within two to six hours after administration. Imlifidase was granted conditional European Marketing Authorization from the European Medicine’s Agency (EMA) in August 2020 for the desensitization treatment of highly sensitized adult kidney transplant patients with a positive crossmatch test against an available deceased donor. Beyond kidney transplantation imlifidase is also being developed for potential treatment of acute episodes in relation to post-transplantation management and acute autoimmune diseases.

About Hansa Biopharma 
Hansa Biopharma is a pioneering commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company on a mission to develop and commercialize innovative, lifesaving and life altering treatments for patients with rare immunological conditions. Hansa has developed a first-in-class immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody cleaving enzyme therapy, which has been shown to enable kidney transplantation in highly sensitized patients. Hansa has a rich and expanding research and development program, based on the Company’s proprietary IgG-cleaving enzyme technology platform, to address serious unmet medical needs in transplantation, autoimmune diseases, gene therapy and cancer. Hansa Biopharma is based in Lund, Sweden and has operations in Europe and the U.S. The Company is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker HNSA. Find out more at https://hansabiopharma.com.