Confo Therapeutics receives €1.7 million grant from VLAIO

Ghent, Belgium, 20 June 2019 – Confo Therapeutics, an emerging drug discovery company, today announces that it has been awarded a €1.7 million grant from Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO). The grant will run over two years and will support one of the Company’s proprietary pre-clinical programs, targeting a neurological orphan indication.

The grant will also support translational biology work by Confo alongside the teams of Prof Patrik Verstreken (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research), Prof Peter de Witte (Molecular Biodiscovery, KU Leuven) and Prof Guy Bormans (Radiopharmaceutical Research, KU Leuven).

Cedric Ververken, CEO of Confo Therapeutics, commented: “This new grant will allow us to progress novel GPCR-modulating compounds against a neurological orphan indication further into pre-clinical development. We are excited about the potential of our approach to treating this particular indication and are grateful to VLAIO for its support of this project.”

Christel Menet, CSO of Confo Therapeutics, added: “This programme is the result of a new proprietary ConfoBodyTM-based screening technology that was developed under a previous VLAIO grant. We would like to thank VLAIO for its continued support of our work, and look forward to working with our academic partners to generate novel therapeutic options in this area of significant unmet medical need.”


For more information please contact:
Confo Therapeutics
Dr Cedric Ververken, CEO | + 32 (0)9 261 0670 | info@confotherapeutics.com

For English-speaking and International Media:
Instinctif Partners for Confo Therapeutics
Dr Christelle Kerouedan, Sue Charles | + 44 (0)20 7457 2020 | confotherapeutics@instinctif.com

For Belgian Media:
Turnstone Communications for Confo Therapeutics
Dr Ann Van Gysel, Björn Debusschere | +32 9 218 71 97 | ann.vangysel@turnstone.be

About Confo Therapeutics
Confo Therapeutics is building a portfolio of first-in-class programs based on its proprietary Confo® technology which makes use of antibody fragments or “ConfoBodiesTM” 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. Confo Therapeutics was spun out of Vrije Universiteit Brussel and VIB in 2015 and has since raised over €36.7 million from an international investor syndicate (BioGeneration Ventures, Capricorn Venture Partners, Fund+, MINTS, Perceptive Advisors, PMV, QBIC, V-Bio Ventures, VIB and
Wellington Partners). More info: www.confotherapeutics.com