Allen & Overy LLP is advising Allergopharma GmbH & Co. KG, which has its registered office in Reinbek and is a member of the Merck Group, on the formation of a joint venture for developing mobile environmental exposure chambers.

Together with the Global Asthma and Allergy European Network (GA²LEN), the Spanish Laboratorios Leti and the French Stallergènes S.A., Allergopharma intends to establish a company that will be in charge of the development, use and commercialisation of mobile exposure chambers, thus taking the level of cooperation between European competence centres for allergy research a step forward.

The environmental exposure chamber is a special facility that enables study participants to be exposed to a specific allergen, for instance, in controlled, enclosed environmental conditions. These chambers make it possible to conduct clinical studies in an atmosphere that equates to the natural environment, without having to take account of the fact that natural conditions are inherently changeable. The mobile exposure chambers are designed to help companies that develop allergy-specific immunotherapies and symptomatic treatments to conduct innovative clinical studies for symptomatic allergy medicines, asthma or other environmental substances in the future. The mobile environmental exposure chambers will, however, be used in particular in the context of allergy-specific immunotherapy.

The transaction is still subject to clearance by the European Commission, as the competent cartel authority.

The Allen & Overy team was led by partner Dr. Michael J. Ulmer and comprised senior associate Dr. Marco Niehaus (both corporate/M&A, Frankfurt), partner Jürgen Schindler (Hamburg/Brussels) and senior associate Dr. René Galle (both antitrust, Hamburg).