Vector1,
You wrote:
>ABSC is a nice company with neat technology and a real place in high >throughput screening. HOwever, they are not in AFFX's league. I >looked at Nanogen when they were still private. Haven't spent much >time lately but would have to be convinced. There are a nunber of >viable array technologies. Making your way through the patent >minefield and having access to QUALITY gene libraries will be the >key.
Are you saying ABSC is not in AFFX's league because they don't screen against quality libraries? They sell to other folks with libraries, and there is this agreement as well:
AURORA BIOSCIENCES AND SIDDCO ANNOUNCE COLLABORATION TO SYNTHESIZE UP TO 2.4 MILLION COMPOUNDS
SAN DIEGO and TUCSON, ARIZ. (April 23, 1998) -- Aurora Biosciences Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSC) and Systems Integration Drug Discovery Company, Inc. ("SIDDCO") announced today that they have entered into a combinatorial chemistry agreement under which SIDDCO will synthesize diverse compound libraries of up to 2.4 million discrete compounds for Aurora. These libraries will be designed by SIDDCO in collaboration with Aurora scientists. Aurora will use these compounds in its ultra-high throughput screening and pharmaco-informatics programs. During this multi-year collaboration, Aurora will provide SIDDCO with certain license and synthesis payments and also take an equity participation in SIDDCO by purchase of preferred shares. Aurora joins three other companies that are funding and participating in SIDDCO's Combinatorial Chemistry Consortium to build a broad-based combinatorial chemistry technology platform.
"SIDDCO will provide a 'dedicated team' of chemists that will share access to the consortium database and synthesize an initial library of 800,000 diverse compounds over the next two to three years. Aurora also has the option to have an additional 1,600,000 diverse compounds synthesized," said Bruce Seligmann, PhD, president and chief executive officer of SIDDCO.
"The extensive compound libraries obtained from SIDDCO will enhance the screening services available to our collaborators while providing a critical component of our strategy to generate a vast pharmaco-informatic database," said Timothy J. Rink, MD, ScD, Aurora's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "This innovative combinatorial chemistry arrangement is a key part of Aurora's plans to acquire a large and diverse collection of compounds to enhance our ability to accelerate lead discovery for multiple collaborators."
The SIDDCO/Aurora agreement contains an option to provide Aurora and its collaborators with medicinal and combinatorial chemistry support for hit and lead optimization. "Because of Aurora's broad screening capacity and its third party contractual arrangements, the lead optimization provisions in the Aurora contract could provide SIDDCO with revenue potential from royalties and milestones associated with a large number of therapeutic programs" said Dr. Seligmann.
SIDDCO is a privately held company founded in late 1996 to develop and apply state-of-the-art approaches to drug discovery. The agreement with Aurora represents the fifth signed by SIDDCO since the start of its operations on June 1, 1997. SIDDCO continues to expand its profitable business while funding operations entirely through research collaborations. In addition to operating its combinatorial Chemistry Consortium, SIDDCO is pursuing other collaborative programs involving optimization chemistry. SIDDCO is also developing its own internal drug discovery program by utilizing a proprietary gene-to-screen, Multi-Array Plate Screening (MAPS) technology that will be licensed to large pharmaceutical companies and used in shared risk collaborations with smaller companies, universities and research centers.
Aurora designs and develops proprietary drug discovery systems, services and technologies to accelerate and enhance the discovery of new medicines. Aurora is developing an integrated technology platform comprised of a portfolio of proprietary fluorescent assay technologies and an ultra-high throughput screening system designed to allow assay miniaturization and to overcome many of the limitations associated with the traditional drug discovery process. The Company believes that this platform will enable Aurora and its collaborators to take advantage of the opportunities created by recent advances in genomics and combinatorial chemistry that have generated many new therapeutic targets and an abundance of new, small molecule compounds. Current collaborators include Merck & Co., Inc., Warner-Lambert, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, and Allelix Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are "forward-looking" statements which involve a high degree of technological and competitive risks and uncertainties that exist in both companies' operations and business environment. Such statements are only predictions and the companies' actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences include the ability to attract additional collaborative partners, the ability to provide a broad range of services to collaborators, risks involved with new and uncertain technology, dependence on existing pharmaceutical and biotechnology collaborations, and the development or availability of competing systems. For Aurora Biosciences, these factors and others are more fully described in the Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Presumably, these will be the compounds Aurora will use when it runs it own UHTSS system. I guess there isn't much way for an outsider to determine the QUALITY of the various libaries around, including those that SIDDCO will generate. Or do you know of a way to assess proprietary libraries?
Cheers, Tuck |
