Aurora Biosciences Licenses GFP Genomics Technologies to Wyeth-Ayerst Research
SAN DIEGO, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Aurora Biosciences Corporation (Nasdaq: ABSC) announced today that it has signed a non-exclusive license agreement with Wyeth-Ayerst Research, a division of American Home Products Corporation (NYSE: AHP), for Aurora's proprietary green fluorescent protein ("GFP") mutant technology for specified genomics technologies and other applications.
Under the terms of the agreement, Wyeth-Ayerst Research was granted rights to use Aurora's GFP mutant technology, one of Aurora's genomic platforms, for certain internal purposes, including use in transgenic organisms. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"We are pleased that Wyeth-Ayerst has joined our licensing program to access additional discovery tools from Aurora. This further emphasizes Aurora's ability to serve the infrastructure of large pharmaceuticals companies in this new genomic age," said John D. Mendlein, Ph.D., J.D., Aurora's chief knowledge officer and general counsel. "Aurora has a number of licenses for our GFP mutant technology and we hope to continue to build licensing relationships with other industry leaders in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and the life sciences."
Aurora's GFP technology is part of its portfolio of patented fluorescent technologies. GFP's are widely used as research tools, with over 2200 publications relating to GFP to date. Aurora's issued patents on GFP, which include over 200 claims, are directed toward nucleic acids encoding fluorescent proteins, the fluorescent proteins themselves, and various fusion proteins. Aurora also has issued patents and applications pending on many uses of fluorescent proteins. Drug discovery-related applications of GFP technology include various methods of functional genomics, high-throughput screening assays, and gene profiling to assess the potential toxicity of compounds. Researchers wishing to use Aurora's GFP technology for non-commercial purposes should contact Clontech Laboratories for information (800-662-2566). Customers desiring to use Aurora's GFP technology for commercial purposes should contact Aurora directly via email at TurnerC@aurorabio.com.
American Home Products Corporation (NYSE: AHP) is one of the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical and health care products companies. It is a leader in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications. It is also a leader in vaccines, biotechnology, agricultural products and animal health care.
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 drug screening and profiling assays. Aurora's technologies have been commercially validated by over 15 major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including American Home Products, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Eli Lilly & 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.
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 the Company's operations and business environment. Such statements are only predictions and the Company's 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 associated with the Company's dependence on patents and proprietary rights, which have inherent uncertainties and are subject to challenge from third parties, new and uncertain technology, dependence on 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 .
GeneBLAzer(TM), GenomeScreen(TM), UHTSS(TM) and VIPR(TM) are trademarks of Aurora Biosciences Corporation..
SOURCE Aurora Biosciences Corporation
CO: Aurora Biosciences Corporation; Wyeth-Ayerst Research; American Home Products
ST: California
IN: HEA BIO MTC
SU: LIC
04/20/2000 09:00 EDT prnewswire.com |
