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Biotech / Medical : CuraGen (CRGN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: keokalani'nui who wrote (364)	10/20/2004 12:13:06 PM
From: Jim Oravetz	Respond to of 478

CuraGen lays off 110 from 3 offices 10/20/2004 Steve Higgins , New Haven Register Business Editor NEW HAVEN — CuraGen Corp. laid off 110 people Tuesday in its third round of job cuts in the past two years. Company officials cited a need to further shift resources from research and development of new drugs to commercializing drugs already — or soon to be — in the testing phase. "It was not an easy decision," said Glenn Schulman, marketing and investor relations manager for CuraGen. "It’s a product of our success in a lot of ways." The company, which uses genetic information to develop treatments for disease, has two drug candidates in Phase I clinical development, expects to have another in clinical trials by year’s end, and hopes to place a fourth into trials in the first half of 2006. Such trials cost tens of thousands of dollars per patient. CuraGen will now employ 240 people in its three facilities — the headquarters at the Maritime Center in New Haven and two office and laboratory buildings in Branford. Employees were laid off from all three facilities; Schulman declined to say how many were let go from each location. CuraGen laid off 80 workers in June 2003 and 128 in November 2002, each time citing a need to transition from research to commercialization. The laid-off workers supported the development of early-stage products. They will receive severance pay, continuation of benefits, and outplacement services. "This restructuring provides CuraGen with the financial flexibility necessary to advance its most promising therapeutics and support multiple clinical programs," said Jonathan M. Rothberg, chairman, CEO and president. Schulman said CuraGen remains in a strong financial position, with $375 million in the bank. "We want to make sure we have the resources to advance these very promising products to the market so they can start helping patients," Schulman said. Paul R. Pescatello, president of Connecticut United for Research in New Haven, said CuraGen is reacting to market mandates. "It reflects the change in Wall Street’s assessment of companies like CuraGen and where their focus should be," he said. "CuraGen has had a lot of success in the lab, and now they’re following through on that success." Pescatello said ideally the company will bring products to market, generate profits and then hire people back and start another round of basic research and development. The two drug candidates now being tested are for the prevention of oral mucositis and the treatment of solid and hematological cancers. Next in line is a drug to treat kidney inflammation, to be followed by a drug for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. The company expects to take a charge of $4 million related to the latest round of layoffs. The company’s stock, which trades on Nasdaq as CRGN, closed Tuesday at $5.12 a share, down 11 cents.

To: keokalani'nui who wrote (364)	12/21/2004 1:44:27 AM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 478

>>BRANFORD, Conn., Dec. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 454 Life Sciences, a majority-owned subsidiary of CuraGen Corporation (Nasdaq: CRGN - News), announced today that its proprietary whole genome sequencing technology was used by scientists at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development L.L.C. (J&JPRD) to help understand the basis of tuberculosis drug resistance. An article entitled "A Diarylquinoline Drug Active on the ATP Synthase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis," was published online in Science Express on December 9, 2004. The article details the discovery of a potential antimicrobial treatment for tuberculosis (TB) that targets a newly identified pathway discovered with the use of 454 Life Sciences' technology. The article will be published in the January 14, 2005 edition of the journal Science. "We are very pleased that our technology was applied by Johnson & Johnson to better understand the basis of drug-resistant TB and identify the target for this new antibiotic, which is currently being investigated as a treatment for this devastating infectious disease," stated Michael Egholm, Ph.D., Vice President of Molecular Biology at 454 Life Sciences. "We believe that 454's novel technology for whole genome sequencing will play an increasingly important role in drug development, as well as agriculture and bioindustrial processes, diagnosis of disease, biodefense, and public health." Four entire bacterial genomes, one from the organism that causes tuberculosis and three from related strains, were sequenced with 454's novel technology and sequencing instrument. Results were confirmed by targeted sequencing effort at J&JPRD in Beerse, Belgium using traditional Sanger sequencing technology. Based on proprietary picoliter-technologies, patented light emitting sequencing chemistries, and state of the art informatics, 454 Life Sciences' technology is able to sequence at least 100 times faster than other currently available systems. 454's technology enables one individual to prepare and sequence a genome after performing a single sample preparation, irrespective of the size of the genome being studied. 454 Life Sciences has provided sequencing services to its strategic partners since 2004, and anticipates shipping instruments to select customers during the first quarter of 2005. About TB Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infectious disease transmitted through the air that infects the lungs and potentially other parts of the body. People infected with TB may have "latent disease," which could remain inactive, while other people may develop "active disease" resulting in a contagious disease that can be life threatening. Each year more than nine million people become infected with either latent or active TB and approximately two million deaths occur from the disease worldwide. Combinations of antibiotics taken everyday for several months are required for the treatment of TB, but are becoming increasingly ineffective as TB becomes resistant to current therapies. The development of new antibiotics that overcome resistance and shorten the length of treatment for this infection remain a critical task. About 454 Life Sciences 454 Life Sciences is developing novel instrumentation and picoliter technologies for rapidly and comprehensively determining the nucleotide sequence -- "whole genome sequencing" -- of entire viral, bacterial, and human genomes. In 2003, 454 Life Sciences sequenced the adenovirus genome in less than one day and submitted the completed sequence to GenBank®, becoming the first to develop a new method and to successfully complete a whole genome sequence since Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger won the Nobel Prize in 1980 for the invention of DNA sequencing. The Company's proprietary technology is expected to have widespread applications in the R&D and Diagnostic sequencing markets and impact drug discovery and development, disease diagnosis, animal health, biodefense, agriculture, environmental sciences, and industrial enzyme development. 454 Life Sciences is a majority owned subsidiary of CuraGen Corporation. Additional information is available at 454.com. << snip Cheers, Tuck