Incyte Genomics and Lexicon Genetics Form Strategic Drug Discovery Alliance
Landmark Intellectual Property Collaboration Provides Foundation for Joint Therapeutic Discovery Efforts
PALO ALTO, Calif. and THE WOODLANDS, Texas, June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Incyte Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: INCY - news) and Lexicon Genetics Incorporated (Nasdaq: LEXG - news) announced today a major collaboration designed to leverage the respective technology and intellectual property assets of both companies to accelerate the development of therapeutic protein drug products. The collaboration will consist of four major components: a therapeutic protein drug discovery alliance; the co-promotion by Incyte of Lexicon's LexVision(TM) database to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; access for Incyte to Lexicon's LexVision database; and access for Lexicon to Incyte's LifeSeq® Gold database. Financial terms were not disclosed.
``Incyte is the clear leader in the discovery and characterization of a large number of potential therapeutic proteins,'' said Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Lexicon. ``By building upon Incyte's composition of matter patent rights with Lexicon's knowledge of in vivo gene function for the discovery of therapeutic utility, both companies are primed to build a significant pipeline of therapeutic protein products. In addition, we are very enthusiastic about linking Incyte's industry leading LifeSeq Gold genomic database with LexVision and applying Incyte's world-class marketing resources to Lexicon's promotion of LexVision.''
``This strategic alliance positions Incyte to actively participate in extracting untapped medical value from our extensive gene transcript databases and intellectual property,'' said Roy A. Whitfield, Chief Executive Officer of Incyte. ``We are pleased to have the opportunity to co-promote LexVision, one of the largest repositories of gene function information, to the life sciences marketplace where we've been so successful with our LifeSeq Gold offering. Our alliance with Lexicon provides Incyte with revenue opportunities but more importantly, allows us to accelerate our therapeutic discovery efforts.''
Therapeutic Protein Drug Discovery Alliance
Lexicon and Incyte have established a major drug discovery alliance to develop a pipeline of therapeutic protein products for development and commercialization by the two companies. A committee of senior scientists from each company will select up to 250 secreted proteins for functional characterization.
A protein that is extruded from inside the cell through the cell membrane is referred to as a ``secreted protein.'' These proteins contain a signal sequence that guides them from interior of the cell through the cell membrane and into the general circulation. Many secreted proteins, such as cytokines and hormones, are of therapeutic importance and have been commercialized by other companies to be very successful therapeutic agents.
Lexicon will apply its large-scale, in vivo mammalian validation technologies to discover and validate the therapeutic utility of the selected proteins. Lexicon and Incyte will share the resulting discoveries and related patent rights, and take them forward for development and commercialization opportunities. Each party will be entitled to receive milestone and royalty payments for products commercialized by the other party. Lexicon and Incyte estimate that the alliance could ultimately yield several commercialized products for each company.
Incyte Co-Promotion of LexVision
A second agreement between the companies provides for Incyte's co-promotion of the LexVision database in North America and Europe. Lexicon's business development team and Incyte's industry leading business development and sales force will work with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that want to determine the physiological function of a drug target at the earliest possible stage of the drug development process.
Access to LexVision and LifeSeq Gold for Drug Discovery Research
Two final sets of agreements give Incyte and Lexicon access to each other's databases (LexVision and LifeSeq Gold) for use in their respective internal therapeutic discovery programs. Each party will obtain access to the other's database on terms typically made available to other subscribers.
About LexVision and LifeSeq Gold
LexVision has become one of the world's largest repositories of new information on in vivo mammalian gene function for drug discovery. Lexicon uses this state-of-the-art technology platform to assess the phenotypic consequences of a knocked-out gene across a variety of parameters relevant to human disease, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, immune disorders, neurological disease, diabetes and obesity.
The LifeSeq Gold database provides researchers with the most comprehensive view of the entire human genome by integrating proprietary expressed tag sequence (EST) and full-length gene sequence information, mapping data, in addition to public genomic sequence information. The database contains more than 120,000 transcribed, or expressed, genes of which approximately half are not commercially available elsewhere.
A joint conference call will be hosted on Thursday June 28, 2001 at 4:30 p.m. EDT to discuss the collaboration. The dial-in number for the conference call will be 888-868-9080. A live webcast can also be accessed by visiting Lexicon's website at www.lexicon-genetics.com or www.streetevents.com. Following the conference call a replay will be available through July 2, 2001 (12:00 midnight EDT). The replay dial-in number for U.S. and International callers will be 973-341-3080 and the PIN number access will be 2691822. An archived version of the webcast will be available on Lexicon's web site through July 2, 2001 (12:00 p.m. EDT). |
