EUROCALIN is a drug development collaboration between 10 distinct companies and academic institutions across Europe and is funded in large part by the European Commission under its FP7 HEALTH program (2011.1.4.3; Grant Agreement number 278408).

EUROCALIN stands for “EUROpean Consortium for AntiCALINS as next generation high-affinity protein therapeutics”. The goal of the collaboration is to develop an exciting potential treatment for anemia into and through the first stage of clinical evaluation. The project started in August 2011 and will continue for four years.

Anticalins® are novel, next generation therapeutic proteins designed to bind and antagonize a wide spectrum of ligands. As funded by the grant, the Consortium will develop, manufacture and clinically test an Anticalin specific for hepcidin, a small peptide circulating in human blood that is considered to be a key regulator of iron homeostasis and, therefore, an important target for the treatment of multiple types of anemia. This Anticalin, called PRS-080, is the proprietary discovery of Pieris AG, an independent biotechnology company. Pieris has developed the PRS-080 molecule to the proof-of-concept stage and will oversee the consortium’s progress as project coordinator.

The Consortium consists of Pieris AG (Germany); Technische Universität München (Germany); Medical University of Innsbruck (Austria); Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (Netherlands); Covance Laboratories Ltd. (UK); Antitope Ltd. (UK); FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies UK Limited (UK); Coriolis Pharma Research GmbH (Germany); FGK Clinical Research GmbH (Germany); and ConsulTech GmbH (Germany).

We invite you to discover more about the project itself, its partners, the disease and the progress of the project by exploring this web site!