Sector News

UCB completes the integration of Handl Therapeutics

July 11, 2021
Life sciences

UCB’s ambition for patients relies on our ability to innovate and deliver highly differentiated medicines with unique outcomes. Today, following the recent acquisition of Handl Therapeutics BV, we are marking their full integration into the UCB family. This is great news as it advances our ability to develop novel treatments using state of the art gene therapy technology.

UCB has a vision to move from symptomatic treatments to disease modification and eventually towards a cure. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) mediated gene therapy offers to deliver that potential and drive a fundamental change in how diseases are treated with the ability to remove or add disease-related proteins with a single treatment. A vast array of severe diseases are amenable to gene therapy and UCB is embracing this modality to expand its capabilities and ultimately transform the lives of patients with severe diseases.

Handl Therapeutics BV is a Leuven-based, Belgium born, transformative gene therapy company with a vision to deploy the power of disease modifying in vivo gene therapy to treat complex neurodegenerative diseases. Operating in a highly collaborative manner, the company built a strong international network to access global capabilities and expertise. To this end, it combines state of the art technology platforms and scientific advances licenced from KU Leuven (Belgium), Centre for Applied Medical Research (CIMA Universidad de Navarra, Spain), University of Chile (Chile) and King’s College London (UK) to address unmet medical needs.

Over the past 90 years, we have been on an incredible journey to become the company you see today. We’ve evolved and adapted but always looked to innovate and deliver highly differentiated medicines.

by Luc Uylenbroeck, UCB

Source: ucb.com

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