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Biotech / Medical : Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IRWIN JAMES FRANKEL who wrote (521)	9/5/2001 10:49:20 AM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1169

>>BOULDER, Colo., and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Array BioPharma Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRY - news) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX - news) today announced the establishment of a collaboration to discover and develop small molecule drugs directed at two specific targets in the phosphatase protein family. ``This collaboration with Array enables Vertex to further expand its chemogenomics approach targeting phosphatases, a gene family believed to contain numerous specific targets that are suitable for small molecule drug design,'' said Joshua Boger, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vertex. ``We look forward to working together with the scientific team at Array to rapidly discover drug candidates for clinical development.'' Under the terms of this agreement, Vertex will provide Array with an upfront fee and research funding over three years. Array will be responsible for initial drug discovery, including lead generation and lead optimization. Vertex may conduct its own research in the area and will be responsible for all aspects of clinical development and commercialization. For products it discovers, Array will be entitled to receive clinical milestone payments. If these products are commercialized, Array will also be entitled to additional milestone payments. These milestones would be paid on an annual basis for a defined term and are tied to predetermined sales levels. ``We are delighted to partner with Vertex, a highly respected biotechnology company that also shares our vision of accelerating the drug discovery process,'' said Robert E. Conway, Chief Executive Officer of Array BioPharma. ``This agreement is representative of our strategy to leverage our expertise across a broad range of therapeutic areas and build greater long term value into our drug discovery alliances.'' About Phosphatases Phosphatases are enzymes that represent key control points in biological pathways. Phosphatases typically function to remove a phosphate group from an active protein, reducing the activity of that protein and de-activating a biological pathway. Inhibiting specific phosphatases may help to enhance the activity of therapeutically beneficial proteins and pathways. There are approximately 100 known phosphatases. Many different phosphatases have been associated with cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory disease, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and neurological disease, and are widely considered to be ideal targets for intervention with small molecule drugs. The structural similarities of protein targets in the phosphatase gene family provide an opportunity to leverage medicinal chemistry across multiple targets in parallel, accelerating small molecule drug design. Both independently and with collaborative partners, Array has ongoing research efforts focused on the phosphatase gene family. Vertex, in addition to the two protein phosphatase programs being pursued with Array, has exploratory research efforts underway targeting additional phosphatases.<< snip Cheers, Tuck