VARIAGENICS Announces License Option Agreement with Strida Pharma for Therapeutic Inhibition of MTHFR
Wednesday October 16, 12:27 pm ET
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 2002--VARIAGENICS, INC. (Nasdaq: VGNX - News), an emerging molecular diagnostics company and leader in pharmacogenomics, today announced that it has granted an option to a worldwide license to Strida Pharma, Inc., a new privately-held cancer therapeutics company, relating to certain VARIAGENICS' MTHFR (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) patent rights. Under the terms of the agreement, VARIAGENICS has granted Strida an option to a license granting worldwide exclusive rights to commercialize therapeutic inhibitors of the MTHFR gene. The terms of the agreement include an up-front fee, and may lead to milestone payments and royalties on sales of any compounds that are developed using the technology. VARIAGENICS gains the right to use Strida's data in support of its own patent applications.
MTHFR is an enzyme critical to folate metabolism and maintenance of cellular methylation levels. Mutations that alter MTHFR activity have been associated with disease predisposition and response to a variety of drugs, including the leading, first-line chemotherapeutic agents. In addition, inhibition of MTHFR has been shown to reduce survival of certain cancer cell lines without affecting survival of normal healthy tissue, making MTHFR an attractive target for oncology drug development.
"Strida is pleased to enter into this licensing agreement with VARIAGENICS as part of our mission to develop new anti-cancer therapeutics based upon MTHFR inhibition," said Rima Rozen, Ph.D., President of Strida and Professor of Human Genetics, Pediatrics, and Biology at McGill University.
"We view this relationship with Strida as another means of leveraging intellectual property outside of our core molecular diagnostics business model," said Joseph S. (Jay) Mohr, VARIAGENICS' President and Chief Business Officer. "We believe that Strida has a promising research plan to exploit this technology and develop new therapeutic products."
"The MTHFR patent rights were licensed from McGill University to VARIAGENICS in 1999. Since then, VARIAGENICS has supported research at McGill focused on the discovery of additional pharmacogenetic utility of the MTHFR gene. Variations in the MTHFR gene have been associated with cardiovascular disease, central nervous system disorders, osteoporosis, pregnancy complications, certain birth defects, cancer and drug response. The patent rights contain pending claims to therapeutic inhibition of MTHFR.
VARIAGENICS recently granted rights to Nanogen and Third Wave Technologies for predicting predisposition to thromboembolytic disease.
In June 2000, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. Patent 6,074,821 titled "cDNA for Human Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase" and in April 2001 issued US Patent 6,218,120 titled "Methods for detecting human methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase allelic variants." Additional patent applications remain pending globally under Patent Cooperate Treaty (PCT) filings. Both issued patents, together with the pending PCT, which were assigned to McGill University, were licensed exclusively to VARIAGENICS under the terms of the original 1999 agreement.
About Strida Pharma, Inc.
Strida Pharma Inc. was founded to develop therapeutics focused on a promising cancer target, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR). Dr. Rima Rozen, President of Strida, cloned MTHFR and identified a common mutation in MTHFR associated with decreased risk for colon cancer and some forms of leukemia. In July 2002, MedTech Partners provided seed financing, which will allow the company to validate the target in vivo and partner the creation of a high-throughput assay for the identification of small molecules that inhibit MTHFR in order to develop promising drug candidates.
About Variagenics
VARIAGENICS, INC. develops molecular diagnostic tests by identifying genetic markers associated with response to cancer therapies, with the goal of optimizing patient care. The Company analyzes genetic variation, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), haplotypes, loss of heterozygosity, and expression levels in normal and tumor cells. VARIAGENICS is developing molecular diagnostic tests through both biopharmaceutical collaborations and its own internal research programs.
For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.variagenics.com.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the effect of pharmacogenomics on therapeutic outcomes and the delivery of healthcare and the role that the Company will play in the field of pharmacogenomics. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially from those referred to or implied in such statements. These risks are identified in VARIAGENICS' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2001. The Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.
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