Clinquest Group of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and TNO of Delft, The Netherlands, expand their existing collaboration on CQ07-001 - a Toll-Like Receptor 3 (TLR3) agonist - to include process development, small-scale manufacturing and purification. TNO expands its process development expertise with mammalian cell culture technologies and is committed to building a supporting infrastructure to broaden its overall biopharmaceutical development services portfolio. CQ07-001, a protein, is a promising candidate targeting auto-immune and inflammatory disorders, most notably Rheumatoid Arthritis and Multiple Sclerosis. The new activities are partly financed through the EZ-cofinancing program, a subsidy awarded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, specifically for innovative research.

Expanding the partnership with TNO offers an important step forward for Clinquest and the development of our TLR3 program, says Cees Wortel, MD, Ph.D., CEO of Clinquest Group. "We are very pleased that TNO has decided to use our lead compound for the launch of their new service portfolio, which offers state-of-the art biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing technologies. It allows us to further benefit from TNO's vast expertise in early stage drug development. As the pre-clinical development of CQ07-001 progresses, this opportunity enables us to develop a scaleable manufacturing and purification process, which is an essential element of moving towards the clinical development stages." This collaboration also underlines Clinquest's partnering strategy, Wortel adds. "We strongly believe in establishing long-term, high quality partnerships. This way, we ensure that our product development is performed in an efficient and cost-effective manner, without compromising on quality."

We are extremely happy that Clinquest has chosen to work together with TNO says Menzo Havenga, PhD, Managing Director of Business unit Biosciences (a part of TNO Quality of Life). "The partnership with Clinquest is an important step forward as we have just launched a fully integrated package of biopharmaceutical development services, which add state-of-the-art process development and production capabilities to our existing and well established portfolio of services in pre-clinical efficacy, safety and pharmacology".

About CQ07-001
CQ07-001 is an endogenous human protein that has shown to be a powerful agonist to Toll-Like Receptor 3 (TLR 3). The 10 human Toll-Like Receptors (TLR) are generally implicated in recognizing pathogens and inducing immune responses and as such, TLRs play in important role in maintaining the body's capacity to counter harmful invaders. Studies performed by TNO Quality of Life have shown that TLR 3, in contrast to the other TLRs, can respond to CQ07-001 and subsequently trigger anti-inflammatory and tissue repair responses. This capacity of CQ07-001 makes it a promising candidate for clinical development aimed at various auto-immune and inflammatory disorders and tissue regeneration applications - indications with large market potential.

About Clinquest Group
The Clinquest Group is a trusted Healthcare Product Development Organization (PDO), which offers comprehensive product development services to the bio-pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics and medical data industries worldwide. Clinquest provides high-level strategic consulting as well as hands-on implementation services. Clinquest is recognized as a leader in the development of new, breakthrough technologies, first-in-man clinical trials and complex clinical studies. The Clinquest Group operates through three wholly-owned subsidiaries: Clinquest Inc., Clinquest Europe and Clinquest Pharmaceutical Innovations. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and has offices in the USA, The Netherlands and Singapore.
www.clinquest.com

About Clinquest Pharmaceutical Innovations
Clinquest Pharmaceutical Innovations offers innovative risk sharing partnerships to selected clients, connecting the company's development resources and expertise with the clients' discovery efforts. Clinquest Pharmaceutical Innovations is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
www.clinquest.com

About TNO
TNO is a prominent, independent knowledge company whose expertise and research contributes significantly to the competitiveness of businesses and organisations, to the economy and to the quality of life as a whole. Versatility and capacity to integrate this knowledge makes TNO unique. TNO employs some 4300 professionals. TNO operates in five core areas: TNO Quality of Life, TNO Defence, Security and Safety, TNO Science and Industry, TNO Built Environment and Geosciences and TNO Information and Communication Technology.
www.tno.nl