FWIW, here is a relevant excerpt from a review of Genset in the October NI:
"France’s Genset has undergone a fundamental shift in its corporate mission. It was originally organized around a bioinformatics business plan, featuring the gene-mapping expertise of Daniel Cohen, a seminal force in explicating the importance of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and their significance in disease states. But in 1999, the area of SNPs identification as a commercial enterprise was set on its ear by the advent of the nonprofit SNP consortium of major pharmaceutical firms. The goal was to map all SNPs and give away the data, analogous to the US Human Genome Project, except that Genset (unlike Celera) was not in a position to outpace the public competition. Instead, Genset decided to shift strategy and move towards the using its genomics expertise to generate, and develop, drug therapy candidates. A new CEO was brought in from Abbott, where he oversaw the development of such CNS drugs as Depakote, sertindole, and tiagabine. Genset has now set about the task of developing products rather than databases, and Genset's sophisticated understanding of SNPs and haplotypes gives it an advantage in such product-development. It has been suggested in print interviews by Genset management that starting later is an advantage, allowing Genset to choose targets based on a more sophisticated understanding of disease pathways. That is part truth, part rationalization; Genset has some catching up to do."
And while I would agree that one would not choose obesity as the first target based on a blank developmental slate, that was not the case, They have a protein (acrp30), they have a correlation with lipid metabolism and obesity, and they have identified the active fragment of the protein, suitable for use as a drug. Right now they are taking it through dose-ranging animal studies, could be in Phase I late 2001. Based on the fact that this program is much more advanced and shows promise, it is worth advancing in spite of the fact that obesity/satiation regulation has turned out to be a veritable rat's nest. They need to play the card they have.
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