Genzyme Molecular Oncology and Purdue Pharma L.P. Announce Tumor Antigen Discovery and Licensing - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

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Genzyme Molecular Oncology and Purdue Pharma L.P. Announce Tumor Antigen Discovery and Licensing
Agreement

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. and Stamford, Conn., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Genzyme Molecular Oncology (Nasdaq: GZMO) and
Purdue Pharma L.P., a privately held pharmaceutical company, today announced their entry into a discovery and licensing agreement
related to the discovery and product development of up to 20 cancer antigens. This agreement has the potential to provide Genzyme
Molecular Oncology with more than $330 million in up front and milestone payments from Purdue Pharma if all 20 selected antigens
are ultimately developed and approved for sale.

Antigens are important markers that alert the immune system to a foreign invader, such as cancer cells, and prompt T cells to attack
and destroy the invader. Antigens are an essential element in the development of powerful, targeted cancer vaccines.



Viel Glück mit Euren MCLO
jen
Genzyme Molecular Oncology expects to identify dozens of antigens during the research term. The agreement allows for Purdue
Pharma to select a specified number of cancer antigens identified by Genzyme Molecular Oncology under the research program.
Genzyme Molecular Oncology and Purdue Pharma may each commercialize products using those selected antigens based on delivery
technology. Genzyme Molecular Oncology estimates that the selected antigens will be less than half of the total number of antigens it
expects to discover during the research term. Genzyme Molecular Oncology will retain rights to those antigens not selected by Purdue
Pharma.

Purdue BioPharma L.P., a biopharmaceutical subsidiary of Purdue Pharma, will use its proprietary technologies, including its
SYNTHEBODY(TM) antibody engineering platforms, epitope strings, and anti-idiotype inducers against these antigen targets to
develop cancer agents and vaccines. Genzyme Molecular Oncology will use its own proprietary technologies, including gene therapy,
cell therapy, peptide, and protein-based technologies, against these antigen targets for its cancer product development.

Under the agreement, Genzyme Molecular Oncology will receive over $21 million in committed funding from Purdue Pharma, which
includes technology access fees, research funding over a three-year period, and an equity investment in Genzyme Molecular Oncology
at a premium to market. Of this, approximately $12 million was received upon execution of the agreement. If Purdue Pharma selects
antigens under the research program, Genzyme Molecular Oncology also may receive in excess of $310 million in milestone payments
from Purdue Pharma related to research and development progress. In addition, Genzyme Molecular Oncology is entitled to receive
royalties on sales of any Purdue Pharma therapeutic product containing antigens discovered under this agreement.

"The magnitude of our agreement with Purdue Pharma illustrates the power and value of our antigen discovery platform technologies
and defines us as a formidable leader in the field of antigen discovery," said Gail Maderis, president, Genzyme Molecular Oncology.
"Not only will we receive significant research funding for our program, but we may use the antigens discovered under the agreement in
our own approaches for developing cancer vaccines. Additionally, we can leverage our antigen discovery platform with other partners
interested in infectious disease and autoimmune disorders."

"With this agreement, we plan to enhance the depth and breadth of our cancer immunotherapy development program," said Dr. Paul
Goldenheim, Executive Vice President for Worldwide Research and Development of Purdue Pharma L.P. "We anticipate that this
collaboration with Genzyme Molecular Oncology will yield novel antigen targets against which we can apply our proprietary
technologies to develop new anticancer drugs and vaccines." The significant strength and speed of its antigen discovery program
distinguishes Genzyme Molecular Oncology as a leader in the antigen discovery field. Using its powerful, high-speed platform,
Genzyme Molecular Oncology can identify potent antigens and antigen fragments (epitopes) for cancer drug development in as little as
three months, and move an antigen into the clinic within 12 to 18 months. Background on Antigen Discovery Program

Genzyme Molecular Oncology established its antigen discovery program to overcome long-standing limitations in the development of
cancer vaccines caused by the lack of known antigens in cancer indications other than melanoma. Genzyme Molecular Oncology
believes providing physicians with an arsenal of off-the-shelf cancer vaccines based on an abundance of known antigens is the future of
immunotherapy.

To reach this goal, Genzyme Molecular Oncology`s antigen discovery platform was created by integrating four proprietary
technologies-SELEC-T, SCAN, SAGE(TM), and SPHERE.

SELECT-T and SCAN are functional approaches that utilize immune cells derived from patient tumor samples to analyze the antigen
profiles of various tumor cell lines. Genzyme Molecular Oncology has generated over 2000 immune cell profiles to date. These
functional profiles are combined with SAGE genomics data to determine the identity of the antigen genes. Genzyme Molecular
Oncology`s proprietary SAGE gene expression database currently contains over three million datapoints on a wide variety of tumor
types.

In addition to identifying the native antigen, Genzyme Molecular Oncology uses SPHERE, a high throughput screening methodology
employing a combinatorial library of over 47 million peptides, to identify potent, modified antigen fragments.

Four fundamental principals distinguish Genzyme Molecular Oncology`s antigen discovery program from competing programs:

-- Genzyme Molecular Oncology utilizes functional approaches at the start
of the discovery process to rapidly focus the search on clinically
relevant targets.
-- The power of gene expression analysis is significantly enhanced by
combining it with functional approaches.
-- Modified antigen fragments have superior potency to naturally occurring
antigens.
-- All parts of Genzyme Molecular Oncology`s discovery program have been
designed for high throughput analysis and the data generated is
accumulated in an "evergreen" database.


Genzyme Molecular Oncology is using its antigen discovery platform to identify new antigens for development in its internal
antigen-specific peptide and gene cancer vaccine programs. Genzyme Molecular Oncology plans to file an Investigational New Drug
Application (IND) for its first proprietary antigen in 2001.

Its antigen discovery platform can also be used to identify antigens and epitopes for development in vaccines and antibody therapeutics
for infectious disease and autoimmune disorders. Genzyme Molecular Oncology plans to seek additional collaborative partners to use
its integrated platform in these areas.

[Pride1]

Da mein Englisch nicht so gut ist, kann den Text einer übersetzen, schafft GZM wieder die 40 Euro???
Danke

[Siby]

Hallo ,


Genzyme Mol.(Nasdaq: GZMO) und Purdue Pharma L.p., eine privat gehaltene pharmazeutische Firma,

verkündeten heute ihre Lizenzvereinbarung, die auf der Entdeckung und der Produktentwicklung von bis 20 Krebsantigenen basiert.

Diese Vereinbarung hat das Potential, Genzyme Mol., mit mehr als $330 Millionen, Meilensteinzahlungen von Purdue Pharma zu versehen, wenn alle 20 ausgewählten Antigene schließlich für Verkauf entwickelt und genehmigt werden sollten.

Vielleicht reichts.
Aufwärts gehts auf jeden Fall.!!!

Gruß