>>CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Genzyme Corp. announced today that two of its divisions have reached an agreement to transfer the rights to intellectual property and licenses related to cancer diagnostics. Genzyme Genetics, a business unit of Genzyme General (Nasdaq: GENZ - news), has purchased these rights from Genzyme Molecular Oncology (Nasdaq: GZMO - news).
These assets, which include diagnostic rights to dozens of proprietary cancer markers, will provide Genzyme Genetics with a strong potential pipeline as it continues to expand its position in the fast-growing cancer testing market. Using these markers, Genzyme Genetics will develop and commercialize new specialized tests for a wide range of cancers, building on a rapidly expanding cancer testing business which already includes a broad array of genetic tests for blood-based cancers, and a recently launched test for HER-2 status in breast cancer.
``This will fuel the continued growth of Genzyme Genetics by immediately strengthening our presence in the cancer-testing market, and by giving us access to technology that can yield other promising cancer markers in the future,'' said Mara Aspinall, president of Genzyme Genetics. ``We expect the cancer diagnostics market to grow rapidly in the future because of new techniques such as these for detecting cancer, and new therapies for treating it.''
In exchange for these rights, Genzyme Molecular Oncology has received $32 million and could receive an additional $1 million in milestone payments. Monetizing these non-core assets provides Genzyme Molecular Oncology with significant funding for its therapeutics research and product development programs focused on cancer vaccines and angiogenesis inhibitors. This and other recently announced transactions bring Genzyme Molecular Oncology's current cash balance to approximately $40 million, which is sufficient to fund its operations into 2003.
Gail Maderis, president of Genzyme Molecular Oncology, said: ``This transaction has significantly increased our cash balance in a non-dilutive manner coming into a very promising year. We look forward to building on the progress we've made in our strategic areas of focus, especially through our newly formed antiangiogenesis collaboration with Kirin Pharmaceuticals around antibody development, the expansion of our clinical trials, and the further development of our antigen discovery platform.''
Under the new arrangement, Genzyme Genetics also assumes exclusive rights to intellectual property for cancer-related genes and methods in the diagnostics field. GZMO derived revenue from some of these assets through non-exclusive licensing agreements that allow the use of these genes in cancer tests. Genzyme Genetics will assume the rights to existing licenses for diagnostic use of p53, a tumor supressor gene that is mutated in over half of all cancers, and the MSH2 and APC genes, which in mutated form can increase the risk of certain types of colon cancer. Genzyme Genetics will seek to expand the roster of partners who sub-license this intellectual property, while also moving to develop and commercialize its own new tests for cancer.
Going forward, Genzyme Genetics will also have diagnostic rights to cancer markers found in the future through Genzyme Molecular Oncology's antigen- discovery program. It gains access to the Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE(TM)) database to identify diagnostic cancer markers, and options to diagnostic-related discoveries found through research collaborations with laboratories at The Johns Hopkins University and other centers. Genzyme Molecular Oncology will have the right to use this intellectual property in diagnostic products offered in conjunction with molecular therapeutics that it develops in the future.<<
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