Ablynx NV continues to crank out deals, its latest being a regional accord with Chinese specialty pharma firm Eddingpharm Co. Ltd. to develop and commercialize its anti-RANKL nanobody ALX-0141, for which it is receiving €2 million (US$2.7 million) up front, plus commercial milestones and tiered double-digit royalty payments.

It’s not quite on the scale of its mammoth deal last month with Abbvie Inc. on its anti-interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R) nanobody ALX-061, which garnered an up-front payment of $175 million, with possibly $665 million more to come in milestones. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 24, 2013.)

Nor is it on a par with its €25 million pact with the Merck Serono arm of Darmstadt, German-based Merck KGaA to set up a dedicated drug discovery unit based on its proprietary nanobody fragment antibody technology. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 27, 2013.)

However, it adds some more cash to the company’s balance sheet and some potential upside into a program that has been on hold since completing a Phase I study in osteoporosis several years back. “We haven’t invested any more since the Phase I results were reported,” Marieke Vermeersch, associate director investor relations at Ghent, Belgium-based Ablynx told BioWorld Today.

In the west, ALX- 0141 has some entrenched competition in the form of denosumab, the anti-RANKL antibody which Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif., markets as Prolia in osteoporosis and as Xgeva in bone metastases. That product racked up second quarter sales of $437 million across the two indications.

ALX- 0141 will have a clearer run in China. “There is no competition coming from denosumab in China,” Vermeersch said. ALX-0141 has the same basic mechanism as denosumab. Binding RANKL, a soluble protein produced by osteoclasts, reduces bone loss by inhibiting osteoclast-mediated bone resorption.

Eddingpharm, of Hong Kong, has rights to develop the product in all indications in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Ablynx will be able to use whatever clinical data Eddingpharm generates in its licensing efforts in other territories.

The deal adds a further gloss to a very successful third quarter for Ablynx. The company exited the second quarter with €72 million on its balance sheet, and it now expects to report around €200 million in cash by year-end, which makes it one of Europe’s most well-funded biotech firms. It plans to use this cash on its internal pipeline and to take forward early stage projects.

Clinical data from a Phase II trial of its lead in-house molecule caplacizumab are due next year. The molecule, which binds the blood glycoprotein Von Willebrand factor, is in development for thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, a rare and potentially fatal hematological condition. “That could be a registration study if the data are OK,” Vermeersch said.

Shares in Ablynx (BRUSSELS:ABLX) edged up 7 cents Friday to close at €7.58.