David, it's a mistake to discount the value of Alanex on the basis of San Diego location and the fact that it was not public before the AGPH buyout. In fact, Alanex has a number of promising partnerships which validate their technology, based on a computational chemistry "virtual library" called Librain containing over 10 billion compounds.
They have partnerships with Roche and Astra for pain, and with Novo-Nordisk for diabetes. There is a 50:50 collaboration with recent IPO Aurora. There are un-partnered programs targetting G-coupled receptors, GnRH antagonist for breast cancer, Neuro Peptide Y for obesity, and CRF for anxiety and depression. On May 1, they announced another collaboration with ICOS for an undisclosed target. On May 6, they announced a worldwide collaboration with Roche.
The value to Agouron is more particular -- Alanex' combichem approach is very suitable to lead optimization and x-ray chrystallography.
A more immediate reason to speculate on Alanex is Roche's increasingly close ties to AGPH. Alanex clearly has something Roche wants, and now Agouron has it. Roche has tied the fate of its PI, Saquinivir, to Viracept, is paying for 80% of Thymitaq trials, and now has a worldwide combi-chem arrangement with an AGPH subsidiary. It would not surprise me at all to find Roche taking a 49% interest in Agouron, just as Novartis did in Chiron. Even giant Roche will eventually be broke if they continue to buy Agouron one piece at a time.
So.... is it all worthless because Alanex is in San Diego and Agouron got 'em before the IPO? -:) |
