Our Corporate and Academic Collaborations
We have entered into collaborations with major corporations and leading academic institutions and researchers.
Corporate Collaborations
Through corporate collaborations, we typically obtain license fees and research funding and the opportunity to receive milestone payments and royalties from research results and subsequent product development and commercialization.
Wyeth. We are party to a license agreement with Wyeth. Under the agreement, Wyeth holds an exclusive, worldwide license, as well as options to obtain a license under certain of our patents to develop certain estrogens and estrogen-like compounds for the treatment of human neurodegenerative disease, including Alzheimer's disease and certain other dementias. Wyeth is funding a Phase III clinical trial evaluating the use of estrogens to delay the onset and slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease and certain other dementias in post-menopausal women. Wyeth paid an up-front license fee upon execution of the agreement. In addition, the agreement provides for us to receive option exercise fees, preclinical and clinical milestone payments and royalty and other payments following the commercial approval of any products developed and launched by Wyeth under this agreement. Wyeth is obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize one or more products under this agreement. Wyeth retains the right to terminate this agreement on a product-by-product basis. Written notice requirements are either 90 days or 360 days depending on the country and the status of Wyeth's product marketing efforts. If the agreement is so terminated by Wyeth, the licensed patent rights revert to us.
Pfizer. In November 1998, we entered into a three-year collaborative research and development agreement and a license agreement with Pfizer. The original term of the research and development agreement was later extended for an additional period ending May 2002. Under the agreements, we collaborate on drug discovery and Pfizer provides funding for our research. Pfizer has accepted multiple targets developed by us that address neurodegenerative disease. We received an upfront cash payment and an equity investment of $2.0 million from Pfizer upon the signing of the agreements. The agreements also provide for us to receive preclinical and clinical milestones and royalty payments based on net sales of any human or veterinary therapeutic products marketed by Pfizer using the targets developed in the collaboration. Pfizer's milestone and royalty obligations continue after the expiration of the research and development agreement. These obligations generally expire with respect to the sale of products in a particular country based on the expiration date of the patent covering the product in that country. If Pfizer chooses to develop any of the compounds we identify under the research and development agreement, we will assign the rights to those compounds to Pfizer; in turn, Pfizer is obligated to use reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize products.
Chiron. In February 2000, we entered into a three-year drug discovery collaboration with Chiron. Under this agreement, we provide technical assistance and chemical synthesis services to generate compounds for use by Chiron in the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule agents. Chiron funds the efforts of a number of our chemists in support of their drug discovery projects. Typically, we work on specific target-based programs with Chiron, producing variations of compounds that have shown activity in primary screens. All of the resulting compounds are the property of Chiron. All chemical methods remain the property of MitoKor.
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Chiron also receives a non-exclusive license to the chemical methods and improvements, with the right to sublicense its license rights.
Academic Collaborations
Through academic collaborations, we gain cost-effective access to new technologies and expertise important to the further development of our technologies and products. Our network of academic advisors and collaborators consists of experts in a variety of disciplines involved in research related to mitochondrial biology, genetics and medicine, and the development of pharmaceutical products. We collaborate with leading academic institutions and highly respected researchers in mitochondrial science. For many of these academic collaboration agreements, we have either joint ownership rights or options to negotiate for exclusive license rights to the resulting technology.
University of California, San Diego. Our collaboration with J. Olefsky, M.D., initially funded through a grant awarded in 1997, focuses on the study of mitochondrial defects in type II diabetes in an effort to further explore the role of mitochondria in this disease. This collaboration was extended and also expanded to include animal testing of one of our type II diabetes drug candidates.
University of California, San Diego, and San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In 2000, we were awarded a grant to develop novel treatments for osteoarthritis in collaboration with the laboratory of R. Terkeltaub, M.D.
University of California, San Diego. In 2001, we were awarded a grant with S. Subramaniam, Ph.D., to partly fund the development of bioinformatics methods and tools and an annotated database related to the identity and function of mitochondrial proteins. This effort is intended to support our ongoing proteomics and genomics projects and the results are expected to contribute to the selection and validation of mitochondrial proteins as potential drug discovery targets.
Buck Institute for Age Research, and University of California, San Francisco. We collaborate with B. Gibson, Ph.D., on mitochondrial proteomics research, including the fractionation, sequencing and identification of proteins present in human mitochondria. The collaboration exploits mass spectrometric technologies to study normal tissue as well as the consequences of metabolic dysfunction and cellular stress in degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, including the identification of proteins that are up- or down-regulated in response to cellular stress. These approaches aim to uncover new molecular targets for drug discovery.
University of Oregon, Eugene. Dr. R. Capaldi has worked with us as a consultant since 2000 in the area of mitochondrial proteomics. We have an agreement with the University of Oregon that will provide us with access to separation technologies and materials (including proprietary monoclonal antibodies) developed in his laboratory to aid in our effort to completely define the normal human mitochondrial proteome.
University of North Texas, Fort Worth. We fund research at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in the laboratory of J. Simpkins, Ph.D. We have the right to obtain licenses to technology and inventions that result from the sponsored program.
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Since 1999, we have supported a team of organic chemists, led by S. Chandrasekaran, Ph.D., and U. Maitra, Ph.D., who synthesize novel
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intermediates that we then use in our drug discovery program. They also scale-up compounds of interest. We retain rights to all compounds developed within the program. The Indian Institute of Science retains rights to certain synthetic processes.
Stanford University. We have maintained a relationship with the laboratory of M. Fuller, Ph.D., since 1999 on a novel class of mitochondrial proteins.
Washington University, St Louis. We fund research at Washington University School of Medicine in the laboratory of D. Covey, Ph.D. We have the right to obtain licenses to technology and inventions that result from the sponsored program. In addition, we have an exclusive worldwide license to certain technology developed by Dr. Covey and his collaborators.
University of Bristol, England. Since 2000, we have been funding studies in the laboratory of A. Halestrap, Ph.D., for research into the biochemistry of a mitochondrial target for drug discovery.
Ohio State University, Columbus. Since 1999, we have been working with D. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., on a collaborative project directed toward the cloning and expression of novel mitochondrial proteins of interest as potential targets for drug discovery.
University of Virginia, Charlottesville. We have collaborated for many years with our scientific founder, W. D. Parker, Jr., M.D., and his colleagues, to study the role of mitochondria in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and other central nervous system disorders. We are currently involved with Dr. Parker in aspects of a mitochondrial population genetics study.
Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 2000, we first entered into a collaboration with Dr. D. Turnbull. Under our current agreements, we will receive samples of purified DNA isolated from normal and diseased brain tissue that will enable us to jointly explore possible connections between defective brain mitochondria and neurodegenerative diseases.
University of Florida. We have a worldwide license from the University of Florida Research Foundation, Inc. to certain technology developed at the University of Florida School of Medicine related to a method of protection against cell loss using polycyclic phenols, including estrogens. We are obligated to pay an annual license maintenance fee and royalties based on product sales.
University of Kentucky. We have an exclusive worldwide license from the University of Kentucky Research Foundation to certain technology developed at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine related to a method of protection against brain cell loss using vitamin D derivatives and compounds which bind the vitamin D receptor. We are obligated to pay royalties on product sales.
University of Vermont, Burlington. We have been sponsoring research activities in the laboratory of R. Galbraith, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of Vermont to study the effects of certain of our compounds in animals. |
