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Wednesday October 8 8:00 PM EDT
Company Press Release
Chiron, Hyseq Collaborate in Fight Against Cancer
EMERYVILLE and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Chiron Corporation (Nasdaq:CHIR) and Hyseq, Inc. (Nasdaq:HYSQ) announced today that, through a collaboration formed earlier this year, the companies are targeting their efforts to fight cancer. Hyseq, the owner of a proprietary gene sequencing technology, sequencing by hybridization (SBH), that is fast and highly efficient, and Chiron, a leading biotechnology company, are collaborating to identify genetic targets for the development of pharmaceutical treatments for this disease that is currently estimated to strike one in every three Americans during his or her lifetime.
Chiron Technologies, a division of Chiron Corporation, currently has access to normal tissue and adjacent tumor samples, both primary and metastatic representatives of all cancers, through collaborations with two major cancer centers. Such samples, in conjunction with innovative microdissection technology, are providing the libraries to be processed by Hyseq's proprietary HyX(SM) Platform Gene Discovery Module and its SBH technology. Hyseq's sequencing process is helping to quickly identify genes that can be targeted for pharmaceutical and therapeutic applications, and aid in the development of these applications.
''We became interested in establishing a collaboration with Hyseq because its advanced technology offers a unique approach to gene sequencing,'' said Lewis T. (Rusty) Williams, M.D., Ph.D., President of Chiron Technologies and Senior Vice President of Chiron Corporation. ''We believe that the combination of Hyseq's gene identification technology with Chiron's gene function technology will result in the discovery of genes of high value in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.''
''Our collaboration with Chiron allows us to expand Hyseq's critical role in accelerating the advancement of genomics technology,'' said Lewis S. Gruber, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hyseq. ''Chiron will expedite cancer research by using Hyseq's cutting edge technology to identify and develop therapeutic applications important to conquering this major disease of our time.''
To strengthen the technological alliance, the two companies entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement, under the terms of which Chiron has invested in Hyseq, in exchange for which it has received Hyseq Common Stock. Christopher R. Wolf, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Hyseq said: ''The depth of our collaboration is underscored by Chiron's equity investment in Hyseq, which we believe is a solid endorsement of our technology and our financial prospects.''
Under the collaboration agreement, Chiron paid an upfront licensing payment, and has guaranteed certain research payments to Hyseq on this three- year project. Chiron has the sole right to commercialize any cancer-related products resulting from the partnership. Hyseq will receive significant milestone payments and royalties on any such commercialized pharmaceutical products.
In the third quarter of 1997, Hyseq successfully completed an initial public offering of 3,450,000 shares of its common stock, and in conjunction with a concurrent private placement, realized gross proceeds of $56 million.
Chiron Corporation, headquartered in Emeryville, California, is a science- driven, market-directed health care company that combines diagnostic, vaccine and therapeutic strategy for controlling disease. Chiron participates in four global health care markets: diagnostic, therapeutic, pediatric and adult vaccines, and ophthalmic surgical products. Chiron also conducts research and development in the fields of biological proteins, gene therapy and combinatorial chemistry.
Hyseq, Inc., based in Sunnyvale, California, applies the proprietary DNA array technology of its integrated HyX genomics platform to produce gene-based therapeutic product candidates, the only
universal DNA sequencing chip, and diagnostic products and tests. Hyseq believes that its proprietary HyGenomics(TM) database of partial gene sequences is the fastest-growing and one of the largest human gene databases in the world.
SOURCE Hyseq, Inc. |
