THE WOODLANDS, Texas and TOKYO, July 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Lexicon Genetics Incorporated (Nasdaq: LEXG - news) and Oriental Yeast Co. (OYC) announced today that they have extended and expanded their marketing collaboration and distribution agreement. The expanded terms call for OYC to assist Lexicon in the promotion of its LexVision(TM) Database to Japanese pharmaceutical companies and in marketing Lexicon's drug target validation technologies in the Japanese market. Financial terms of the agreement are not disclosed.
Under the expanded agreement, OYC will assist Lexicon in the promotion of LexVision, 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 medical applications of genes and the proteins they encode across a variety of parameters relevant to human diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, immune disorders, neurological disease, diabetes and obesity.
``The expansion of our contract with OYC strengthens and confirms Lexicon's commitment to provide in vivo mammalian functional genomics and target validation to the Japanese drug discovery market,'' said Randall B. Riggs, Lexicon's Senior Vice President of Business Development.
``Through our expanded collaboration, Japanese researchers will now have greater access to Lexicon's drug target validation technologies,'' said Yuhsi Matuo, Ph.D., DMSc., Board Member and OYC's Senior Director of BioIndustry. ``The ability to use the physiological data in LexVision to gain a better understanding of how genes function will drive significant progress across numerous research programs.''
Over the past year, Lexicon and OYC have collaborated on the development of a unique web interface in the Japanese language that allows researchers to access Lexicon's OmniBank® library. OmniBank is the world's largest library of over 150,000 gene knockout clones, covering more than 40 percent of all genes in the mammalian genome. Using the Internet, Japanese researchers are able to obtain gene knockout clones from Lexicon for functional genomics research.
In addition to the LexVision promotion, OYC will market specific drug target validation projects using gene targeting on Lexicon's behalf. Lexicon's patented gene-specific gene targeting technology rapidly generates knockout mice with alterations in specific proteins. Lexicon and its collaborators use gene targeting and other technologies to systematically discover the medical use of genes from the human genome and translate those findings into new pharmaceutical products.
Since 1968 OYC has been involved in the emerging biotechnology industry through its work in biochemicals for the medical diagnostics field. In 1987 OYC established, as a new division, a state-of-the-art Research Center called the Nagahama Institute for Biochemical Sciences. This division of OYC is engaged in research, development and production for useful compounds utilizing the latest biotechnologies, including genetic engineering. OYC has adapted genetic engineering and related research as its core technology and devotes its use for the advancement of human health and welfare... |
