biowa, thanks for the link.
On the BioTherapeutics unit; this may be either a fourth category or may fall under the "new business ventures" class.
As you mentioned before, MLNM has retained rights for "biologicals" for many of their gene licensing deals. BioTher seems to be the (or at least "a") way in which they will exploit these retained rights.
Here is a recent press release out of yahoo:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuter) - Eli Lilly and Co. will invest $20 million in a new Millennium Pharmaceuticals
Inc. unit to develop therapeutic proteins, antibody and gene therapies and other products, Millennium said
Thursday.
In exchange, Lilly will have an 18 percent stake in the unit, Millennium BioTherapeutics Inc., with Millennium
retaining about 82 percent ownership.
The new unit and Lilly have agreed to a multi-year program to seek, develop and commercialize new therapeutic
protein products, Millennium said. In addition to the initial investment, Lilly will provide up to $10 million in
research funding a year.
Additional licensing fees, clinical development milestones and royalties will be payable by Lilly in connection
with specific therapeutic protein product candidates identified in the collaboration and licensed by Lilly.
``We view Lilly's equity investment as further support of our promising pipeline of biotherapeutic product
candidates which may be rapidly advanced into clinical trials by as early as 1999,'' Millennium said in a
statement.
Lehman Bros. industry analyst Matthew Murray said Millennium has exploited a variety of high-technology
methods to discover thousands of genes, about 15 of which have been identified through testing as potential
targets for drugs.
He said Millennium had signed prior collaboration deals with five major pharmaceutical companies, including
Lilly, with prospects of getting perhaps single-digit royalties from any drugs they discover.
``Millennium will capture far bigger margins by finding drugs in their own subsidiary. It is very promising for
the company because it signals expansion beyond genomics to drug-discovery,'' Murray said. |
