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StructuralBioinform atics N am es N ew Acting Head ofDrug Discovery Structural Bioinformatics, Inc. (SBI, San Diego), a proteomics-driven drug discovery company, announced in June that Ruth F. Nutt had joined the company as acting head of drug discovery and a member of SBI’s scientific advisory board. Nutt’s responsibilities will include oversight of SBI’s expanding drug discovery efforts. She reports directly to David D. Muth, president and COO. Prior to joining SBI, Nutt served for 31 years in various research positions of increasing responsibility at Merck & Co. at its Rahway, NJ, and West Point, PA, sites. Nutt joined Corvas International (San Diego) in 1993 to direct the medicinal and analytical chemistry discovery research efforts for novel oral antithrombotic agents. She has a doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Sequoia Sciences and Gem in X Announce Collaboration Sequoia Sciences (San Diego), a drug discovery company specializing in therapeutic agents derived from plants, and Gemin X Biotechnologies (Montreal, Canada), a discoverer and developer of novel cancer therapeutics, announced in June that they had formed a collaboration to discover novel apoptosis-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. This collaboration capitalizes on the proprietary technologies of both companies by combining Sequoia’s chemistry tech-
© 2002 American Chemical Society
nologies and collection of drug-like compounds with Gemin X’s anticancer assays. Under the terms of the collaboration, Sequoia will provide Gemin X with access to its compound collections, and Gemin X will screen those collections using its proprietary apoptosis assay systems. In addition, Gemin X will be responsible for downstream profiling, lead optimization, development, and commercialization. Gemin X will receive worldwide rights, with the right to license, develop, and market discovered compounds. Sequoia will receive an up-front technology access fee, research funding, development milestone payments, and royalties from the sale of products commercialized by this collaboration. Financial terms were not disclosed.
F2G Ltd.Form s Collaboration w ith Genom e Therapeutics Corp. F2G Ltd. (Manchester, U.K.), a research and development company specializing in agents to fight fungal infections, announced in June that it had entered into an agreement with Genome Therapeutics Corp. (Waltham, MA) to discover novel antifungal drugs. According to the agreement, F2G will screen compounds from Genome Therapeutics’ internal library of chemical compounds to identify candidates with potent activity against medically important fungal pathogens. Using its whole-cell, high-throughput screening capabilities for the assessment of antifungal activity, F2G will perform both primary and secondary
PerkinElm erExercises Option forUse ofOrchid Bioscience’s SN P-IT Orchid Biosciences, Inc. (Princeton, NJ), a provider of products, services, and technologies for value-added genotyping, announced in July that PerkinElmer, Inc. (Wellesley, MA) had exercised its option to develop and sell fluorescence-based SNP diagnostic assays based on Orchid’s proprietary SNP-IT genotyping technology. Financial details were not disclosed. In December 2000, Orchid granted PerkinElmer exclusive rights to use SNP-IT technology in fluorescence polarization-based reagent kits, software, and instruments sold by PerkinElmer’s Life Sciences business. The original agreement covered products sold to the research products market under the brand name AcycloPrime-FP SNP Detection Systems. By exercising its option under this agreement, PerkinElmer can now develop and market assays based on fluorescence polarization methodologies to the clinical diagnostic market as well. In addition to its exclusive license to SNP-IT for fluorescence-based applications, PerkinElmer obtained from Orchid a nonexclusive license to use SNP-IT-based assays on DNA sequencers.
screens to identify compounds with potential for further development. Genome Therapeutics retains rights to the compounds, but this initial collaboration between the companies may be a prelude to a close working relationship on the optimization and development of promising leads. Specific financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
M etaPhore Com pletes Series C Financing MetaPhore Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (St. Louis, MO), a pharmaceutical discovery and development company, announced in July the completion of a $30 million Series C financing to further advance the company’s small-molecule superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetic candidates in human clinical trials. This round of financing was led by HealthCare Ventures VI, LP; Advent Venture Partners;
and Merrill Lynch Ventures LP 2001. MetaPhore’s SOD mimetics comprise an extensive family of small molecules with a unique mechanism of action that targets a broad range of diseases. The lead candidates from this family, M40403 and M40419, are being tested in clinical trials for acute pain and refractory hypotension. M40403 successfully completed Phase I safety testing last year, and the company expects to advance M40419 into the clinic later this year. Additional Series C financing was provided by new and existing investors, including Prolog Ventures, Gryphon Holdings, Clayton Capital Investors, and SImile Investors. Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., an investment banking firm based in St. Louis, MO, provided financial advisory services to MetaPhore in connection with the transaction.
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Am ersham Purchases Prearrayed Slide Business Amersham plc (London) announced in July the acquisition of Motorola Life Science’s CodeLink prearrayed slides business for $20 million. The acquisition moves the company into the prearrayed slides market, building on the well-established position that Amersham Biosciences (Uppsala, Sweden), the life sciences business of Amersham plc, has long held in the self-spotted array market. The microarray market, estimated to be worth more than $500 million, is one of the most rapidly growing areas in the life sciences field, with annual growth of 20%. Today, prearrayed slides are most commonly used for studying gene expression, but a significant opportunity exists for broadening their use into applications for SNP analysis, protein research, and clinical diagnostics. The Motorola CodeLink platform is based on a patented manufacturing process that produces high-quality arrays with better sensitivity, reproducibility, and more usable data points than others on the market. Key personnel will transfer to Amersham, and the company expects to continue manufacturing CodeLink products in Tempe, AZ.
Schering-Plough Granted Rights to Hum an Genom e Sciences’ Antibodies Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (Rockville, MD) announced in July that Schering-Plough Corp. (Kenilworth, NJ) had acquired exclusive rights to develop and commercialize two human antibodies using Human Genome Sciences’ technology. Under the terms of a prior agreement forged
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Large Scale Biology Receives Five-YearContract The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS, Research Triangle Park, NC) has awarded a five-year contract through its National Center for Toxicogenomics to Large Scale Biology Corp. (LSBC, Vacaville, CA), a genomicsand proteomics-based drug development and manufacturing company. The work will be performed at LSBC’s proteomics division in Germantown, MD. LSBC is expected to analyze an undisclosed number of samples under the contract each year. The principal investigator for the project will be LSBC’s vice president of proteomics, Sandra Steiner. The NIEHS contract adds to LSBC’s proteomics client base, which currently includes GlaxoSmithKline (London), the University of South Florida (Tampa, FL), and LSBC’s internal biomarker and drug discovery initiatives. First-year revenues to LSBC will be $2,463,000.
by the Human Gene Therapeutic Consortium (HGTC), a group of drug research and development companies including Human Genome Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline (London), Schering-Plough, Takeda (Osaka, Japan), Merck KgaA (Darmstadt, Germany), and SanofiSynthelabo (Paris), Human Genome Sciences will receive milestone payments and royalties on sales from products that may result from research on each of the two antibodies. The HGTC agreement granted Schering-Plough options to two therapeutic proteins discovered by Human Genome Sciences. In October 2000, Human Genome Sciences announced that Schering-Plough had exercised its option to develop and commercialize a novel type of interferon. Under terms of the agreement announced this July, Schering-Plough is granted exclusive rights to the use of two human antigens as targets for the development and commercialization of antibody drugs in lieu of its remaining option to exclusive rights to a second therapeutic protein. The agreement therefore satisfies Human Genome Sciences’ remaining obligations to Schering-Plough.
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SurroM ed and Biogen Forge Agreem entTo Study M S Therapeutics SurroMed, Inc. (Mountain View, CA) announced in June that it had entered into a two-year collaborative research agreement with Biogen, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) to study patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and characterize patient responses to Biogen’s Avonex (interferon-β-1a). SurroMed will use its proprietary, integrated platform for biological marker discovery and comprehensive phenotyping to identify biological markers that are useful for discovering and developing new MS drugs and that can be commercialized as diagnostic tests to guide and improve MS patient care and treatment. Under the agreement, Biogen and SurroMed will undertake clinical research, and SurroMed will analyze patient samples in its Biomarker Discovery Laboratory. SurroMed will receive research funding, a technology access fee, and success payments contingent upon achievement of certain objectives. In addition, SurroMed will receive revenues from sales of diagnostic tests discovered under the agreement. Additional financial terms were not disclosed.
Sidec Technologies Partners w ith BioInvent Sidec Technologies AB, a biotechnology company based in Stockholm that provides solutions for signal reconstruction through 2-D and 3-D imaging of biological samples, announced in June that it had signed a contract with BioInvent for 3-D imaging of biomolecules using Sidec Electron Tomography (SET) and Sidec Molecular Imaging. BioInvent is a drug discovery company based in Lund, Sweden that specializes in the isolation and development of human antibodies. According to Göran Conradson, BioInvent’s vice president of business development, the deal will help BioInvent learn more about the antibodies they work with and their interactions with antigens; especially useful will be detailed knowledge of where the binding occurs. This information may be desired when choosing the appropriate antibody from a large panel of antibodies binding to the same antigen. The partnership will allow Sidec to extend its technologies and gain experience in imaging particularly small molecules with SET. Under the terms of the agreement, Sidec will evaluate the possibility of visualizing the interaction of an antibody with its target antigen. SET allows individual macromolecules to be visualized and studied in 3-D at resolutions approaching 2 nm. SET technology can be used to study proteins in solution or in their biological context, and 3-D images can be achieved within a day. Thus, it is a fast method for attaining structural information on binding domains, subunit assembly, macromolecular interactions, dynamics in the shape of molecules, and changes under different experimental conditions.
