Press Release Source: Neurogen Corporation
Neurogen Announces Milestone Payment from Aventis from Depression/Anxiety Drug Collaboration
Tuesday December 23, 3:11 pm ET
BRANFORD, Conn., Dec. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Neurogen Corporation (Nasdaq: NRGN - News), a drug discovery and development company, announced today that progress in its research and development collaboration with Aventis (NYSE: AVE - News) has resulted in the achievement of a preclinical milestone which triggers the payment of $1 million from Aventis. The companies are working together in an exclusive worldwide collaboration to develop new drugs which target corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF-1) for the treatment of depression, anxiety, and other stress-related disorders. CRF-1 is a hormone in the brain which is known to be involved in the body's response to stress. Current therapies to treat depression and anxiety work through the regulation of other mechanisms.
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William H. Koster, President and CEO of Neurogen, said, "Depression and anxiety are debilitating disorders that each affect more than 18 million patients in the U.S. Current therapies for both anxiety and depression carry the baggage of undesirable side effects and are not effective in all patients. Together with Aventis, we are committing a sizeable effort to the discovery and development of drugs that block the action of CRF-1 at its receptor. The milestone awarded today is an indication that we are making significant progress toward that goal."
"I'm also extremely pleased with progress across our entire portfolio this year. Currently, we're in Phase II with two trials in our unpartnered inflammation program, in Phase I for insomnia with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE - News), and in preclinical development with Merck (NYSE: MRK - News) for pain. We're also continuing to feed our pipeline with research in our MCH-1 program for obesity and other unpartnered programs. It's an exciting time for Neurogen as we continue to apply our drug discovery and development capabilities to developing drugs for areas with so much unmet medical need."
Under the terms of the 2001 agreement with Aventis, Neurogen received an initial cash payment of $10 million and is eligible to receive cash payments based upon the achievement of certain milestones in the drug research and development process. Aventis has assumed exclusive worldwide development, manufacturing and marketing rights to collaborative compounds, and will pay Neurogen escalating tiered royalties based on total sales of any collaboration drugs which come to market. |
