Aurora Biosciences Announces Assay Development Agreement With Organon
SAN DIEGO, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Aurora Biosciences Corporation (Nasdaq: ABSC) and Organon today announced they entered into a three-year agreement to develop high-throughput drug discovery screening assays for several key molecular target classes, including orphan G protein-coupled receptors, ion channels, and enzymes. Organon will also gain access to aspects of Aurora's ion channel technology platform, including its Voltage Ion Probe Reader (VIPR(TM)).
Aurora intends to develop assays for Organon research facilities in both the Netherlands and Scotland. Aurora will receive upfront and annual payments for screen development and access to Aurora's ion channel technology. Additionally, Organon will also make milestone and royalty payments to Aurora for compounds commercialized through the use of screens generated under the collaboration. Organon has an option to have Aurora perform screening on Aurora's ultra-high throughput screening system, the UHTSS(TM) Platform.
"I am delighted that Organon has chosen Aurora's VIPR(TM) technology, our leading platform for ion channel drug discovery, which has now been adopted by 9 leading pharmaceutical companies," said Stuart J.M. Collinson, Ph.D., Aurora's chairman, chief executive officer and president.
"Aurora is pleased to be working with Organon and we look forward to a very productive relationship," said Harry Stylli, Ph.D., Aurora's senior vice president, commercial development. "This agreement again demonstrates that pharmaceutical companies see real benefits in outsourcing aspects of their drug discovery programs, and we are pleased that they have chosen to utilize Aurora's target validation and assay development expertise, as well as our proprietary biology and chemistry to expand the capabilities of their screening efforts."
"Aurora's range of fluorescence technologies and their ability to develop assays for a broad range of targets drove our decision to collaborate with Aurora," commented Driek Vergouwen, Organon's managing director of research and development. "We have put in place excellent target generation capability, screening instrumentation and chemical libraries and with the use of Aurora's proficient assay development, we will be able to increase the overall quality and efficiency of our drug discovery process."
Aurora designs, develops and commercializes advanced drug discovery technologies, services and instrumentation to accelerate the discovery of new medicines. The Company's core technologies include a broad portfolio of proprietary fluorescence assay technologies, including its GeneBLAzer(TM) and VIPR(TM) technologies; its functional genomics GenomeScreen(TM) program, its automated master compound store, the AMCS, and its ultra-high throughput screening system (UHTSS(TM) Platform) and subsystems to miniaturize and automate assays derived from those technologies within a computer-controlled integrated system, capable of searching through expansive libraries of compounds to identify those that might lead to new medicines. Aurora believes its technologies have been commercially validated by over 15 major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including American Home Products, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Glaxo Wellcome, Genentech, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Pfizer, Inc., and Warner-Lambert Company, in the form of commercialization agreements for discovery services, licenses or instrumentation. For additional information on Aurora's services and products, please contact Sales and Marketing via email at marcom@aurorabio.com.
NV Organon develops and produces pharmaceutical products in fields such as gynecology, psychiatry, athero-thrombosis, and auto-immune diseases. The company employs more than 11500 employees worldwide. The company invests over 17 percent of its sales income in its drug discovery and development programmes. NV Organon is one of the pharmaceutical business units of Akzo Nobel. Akzo Nobel, based in the Netherlands, serves customers throughout the world with healthcare products, coatings, and chemicals. The company currently employs approximately 68,000 people in 75 countries. Consolidated sales for 1999 totaled 14.4 billion EUR (31.8 billion NLG). For more information on Organon, visit the Organon website at organon.com
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are "forward-looking" statements which involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty. Such forward-looking statements include statements regarding the ability of Aurora to develop and deliver screens to Organon, perform screening services as required under the collaboration and receive future milestones and royalty payments from Organon. Such statements are only predictions and the actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences include risks involved with the Company's new and uncertain technology, uncertainties regarding the receipt of future milestone and royalty payments, risks associated with the dependence on patents and proprietary rights, the ability to attract additional collaborative partners, dependence on existing pharmaceutical and biotechnology collaborations, and the development or availability of competing systems. These factors and others are more fully described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K as amended for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1999, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For additional corporate information, visit the Aurora website at aurorabio.com.
UHTSS(TM), GenomeScreen(TM) and VIPR(TM) are trademarks of Aurora Biosciences Corporation.
SOURCE Aurora Biosciences Corporation
CO: Aurora Biosciences Corporation; NV Organon
ST: California, Netherlands, Scotland
IN: BIO MTC HEA
SU:
04/06/2000 08:01 EDT prnewswire.com |
