Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MLNM - news) and Wyeth-Ayerst Research, the principal pharmaceutical research and development division of American Home Products Corporation (NYSE: AHP - news), today announced that they have identified a preclinical candidate compound that has demonstrated efficacy and safety in animal models for potentially treating serious, life-threatening bacterial infections. This antibacterial compound works through a novel mechanism of action that is distinct from conventional antibacterial therapies and was identified through the application of Millennium's drug discovery technologies platform. Upon further validation of preclinical pharmacology and toxicology analyses, the companies will aggressively move forward with submission of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The identification of this antibacterial compound represents a landmark for the bacterial disease alliance between Millennium and Wyeth-Ayerst, as it is the first compound to achieve preclinical candidate status. Millennium also announced that it has delivered three additional novel antibacterial drug targets as part of the alliance with Wyeth-Ayerst, bringing the total to twelve antibacterial targets since the alliance began in December 1996. The delivery of the preclinical candidate and the additional drug targets will trigger undisclosed milestone payments to Millennium.
``We are very excited by the prospects for this preclinical candidate and by the other drug discovery assets that we have built with Wyeth-Ayerst,'' said Robert Tepper, M.D., chief scientific officer of Millennium. ``The need for novel, antibacterial therapies that avoid cross-resistance to existing agents is growing, and the Millennium-Wyeth joint scientific team is highly committed to meeting this challenge by advancing the development of new and better antibacterial drugs.''
``The antibacterial candidate we have just identified represents the sort of breakthrough compound that we hoped to produce through our collaboration with Millennium,'' said David Shlaes, Ph.D., vice president of infectious disease research for Wyeth-Ayerst. ``This latest achievement is part of the strong discovery pipeline of novel leads and targets that our alliance with Millennium has established.''
Millennium's five-year strategic alliance with Wyeth-Ayerst to discover and develop antibacterial drugs for human use focuses on the identification of bacteria-specific, small molecule targets and suitable drug lead candidates. Millennium will receive royalties on the sale of any products derived from the collaboration. Worldwide sales of drugs to treat bacterial and fungal infections totaled almost $20 billion in 1998, making it the second-largest pharmaceutical market.... |
