Leiden, The Netherlands, May 15, 2001 - Crucell N.V. (NASDAQ: CRXL; Euronext Amsterdam: CRXL) today announced that they have agreed with the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC Utrecht) in the Netherlands, to cooperate to discover targets, therapeutic human antibodies and vaccines for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes that currently affects an estimated 120 million people worldwide. Since it is an age-related disease, and the average age of the population will increase significantly in the next decades, the prevalence of diabetes is predicted to increase accordingly, to an estimated 220 million patients by the year 2010. Type 2 diabetes affects many organs including eyes, kidneys and nerves and substantially increases the risk of premature heart failure.

Recently, UMC Utrecht discovered that the self-aggregation of a protein called human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) is associated with the destruction of insulin-producing cells and hence the onset and progression of type 2 diabetes. Preventing the formation of these hIAPP aggregates or inducing their elimination may therefore yield an innovative treatment of the disease. This work was published in The New England Journal of Medicine (August 10, 2000). Under the terms of the agreement, the intellectual property based on this invention is assigned to Crucell.

Crucell will use its target discovery engine MAbstract(TM) to find targets and develop human antibodies, and its PER.C6(TM)-based technology to develop vaccines against the aggregation of hIAPP. The resulting antibodies and vaccines will be tested in a transgenic mouse model developed by UMC Utrecht, to establish whether they are capable of preventing and/or eliminating the aggregation of hIAPP, and thus present a potential treatment for type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Ton Logtenberg, Chief Scientific Officer of Crucell commented: "We are very excited to cooperate with UMC Utrecht because it will enable us to combine their unique expertise and testing model for type 2 diabetes with our capabilities to discover novel targets and to make human antibodies and vaccines. In this way we will be able to develop and test new potential therapies for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, and increase our potential product portfolio.'

Dr. Jo Höppener, leader of the research team at UMC Utrecht's Department of Clinical Endocrinology, headed by Prof. Kees Lips, commented: "Very recently, antibody and vaccination strategies for Alzheimer's disease, involving a similar protein, have gained much attention after reports in leading scientific journals. We believe that such strategies may also be used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, which is one of the most common metabolic diseases worldwide. Targets and human antibodies and vaccines, identified and developed with their human technology platforms, can be evaluated for therapeutic effectiveness in our pre-clinical disease model.'

Crucell and UMC Utrech collaboration