CLEVELAND--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 11, 2001--Quark Biotech, Inc. (QBI), announced today that Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Japan has made an equity investment in the Company. The investment was made as part of QBI's Series F financing. Financial terms were not disclosed.
QBI and Mitsubishi-Tokyo are currently collaborating to develop drug targets identified in earlier gene discovery programs in neurodegeneration. The collaboration has been recently broadened to discover the genes that are related to other disease areas. The Companies aim to develop therapeutic treatments for these diseases that correct the causes, rather than just affecting the symptoms.
``QBI and Mitsubishi-Tokyo share a common goal: to create a healthier future for all people, especially those suffering from difficult-to-treat disease conditions,'' said Daniel Zurr, Ph.D., chief executive officer and founder of QBI. ``Mitsubishi-Tokyo's investment in QBI affirms the success of our partnership. We have every reason to believe that we will continue that success in the years to come.''
``Mitsubishi-Tokyo hopes to provide society with valuable new medicines,'' said Akihiro Tobe, Ph.D., Board Director and President of Research and Development Division of Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals. ``QBI has been, and will continue to be, an important partner in that mission. QBI's team, along with its applied genomics technology, will greatly accelerate the drug discovery and development activities of our company.''
To date, QBI and Mitsubishi-Tokyo have extended their original collaboration and achieved milestones. Mitsubishi-Tokyo will continue to fund research at QBI and collaborate with QBI scientists according to the planned scientific research program. QBI will receive royalties on sales of the products developed from this collaboration, as well as milestone payments.
The Series F is reserved for QBI's strategic partners who recognize QBI's capability to discover drug targets efficiently. Funds from this investment will help finance the continuing development and preclinical and clinical studies of the drug candidates generated by QBI's applied genomics technology.
About Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC), one of the largest chemical companies in Japan, and was established on October 1, 1999, through merger of the pharmaceutical division of MCC and TOKYO TANABE CO., LTD.
Effective October 1, 2001, Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals will merge with Welfide Corporation and will be operating under the name of Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation. The new company will be expected to establish a stronger foundation and larger power base in order to counteract the severe state of the world pharmaceutical market, by closely linking the various processes, from research and development to manufacturing and sales, with a futuristic corporate system that frees up the abundant potential from existing restrictions. Its goal is to become a global pharmaceutical company and is contributing continually to the society through development and provision of valuable new medicines.
About Quark Biotech, Inc.
QBI, founded in 1994, is an established, privately held U.S. Company. It is a genomic-based drug discovery and pharmaceutical company with the expertise and proprietary technology platform to find and understand the biological functions of genes critical to virtually any disease. This leads to a unique ability to identify ideal ``targets'' for pharmaceutical intervention within months instead of years and development of better drugs faster.
In May of this year, QBI announced that it has entered into new research collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic. QBI also announced plans to move its headquarters to the Cleveland Clinic campus.
QBI's broad technology platform includes library preparation methods, functional profiling, comprehensive expression profiling, DNA chip technology, bioinformatic methods and algorithms, bioassays and readouts, high throughput screening of chemical libraries, pharmacogenomics, toxicogenomics and product development capabilities.
The Company is engaged in a variety of research projects aimed at developing pharmaceutical products in major disease areas such as: breast cancer, bladder cancer and other solid tumors, fibrotic diseases, cardiovascular and ischemic diseases, stroke, osteoporosis, and diabetes.
QBI has additional research facilities located in the Weizmann Science Park, Ness-Ziona, Israel and Chicago, Illinois.
Larry Ellison company, and apparently very well funded: see Genomeweb -
genomeweb.com
Link for website -
quarkbiotech.com
I think they are a LEXG customer. |
