LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EPIX - News), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapeutics through the use of its proprietary and highly efficient in silico drug discovery platform, today announced that it has achieved a key milestone related to the third of three discovery programs under its collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (NASDAQ: GSK - News). Using its proprietary, integrated computational-medicinal chemistry approach to drug discovery, EPIX has identified three lead candidates to move forward into lead optimization in its third G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) discovery program. Under the terms of its collaboration with GSK, EPIX is entitled to receive a milestone payment of $3 million for identifying three candidates in this program and an additional $2.5 million for its overall progress in all three of the discovery programs that are part of its collaboration with GSK. EPIX has previously received two milestone payments totaling $6 million for the other two discovery programs that are part of its collaboration with GSK.
“Our in silico approach to drug discovery continues to deliver results and has allowed us to rapidly progress lead candidates into lead optimization programs,” said Sheila DeWitt, Ph.D., vice president of discovery at EPIX. “We have now identified candidates in all three of our GPCR discovery programs under our collaboration with GSK, and are pleased with the timeliness and effectiveness of our joint efforts.”
“We are excited by the progress we are making in our collaboration with GSK, and believe that these lead candidates have the potential to be optimized into promising drug candidates,” said Michael G. Kauffman, M.D., Ph.D. “Additionally, we recently announced the initiation of our Phase 2b program in Alzheimer’s disease, which is another critical component of our strategic and valuable collaboration with GSK.”
In December 2006, EPIX and GSK announced a worldwide multi-target strategic collaboration to discover, develop and market novel medicines targeting four G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) for the treatment of a variety of diseases, including EPIX’s novel 5-HT4 partial agonist program, PRX-03140, which is in clinical development for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. As part of the collaboration, EPIX received total initial payments of $35 million, including $17.5 million through the purchase of its common stock, and may be eligible to earn up to $1.2 billion in milestones across the four GPCR programs. Under the collaboration, EPIX is also entitled to receive tiered double-digit royalties of sales by GSK on all product sales stemming from the collaboration. The alliance is conducted through GSK’s Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD).
“EPIX’s in silico approach to drug discovery has allowed our alliance to progress three novel computational leads into lead optimization in less than 18 months,” said Hugh Cowley, M.D., head of GSK’s Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD). “This achievement marks an additional milestone in what we believe will be a long and productive relationship.”
About the GSK CEEDD
GlaxoSmithKline is enhancing the way it discovers and develops drugs by creating a small dedicated team who will feed the GSK pipeline through the efforts of its external collaborations. In essence, the CEEDD (Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery) will ‘virtualize’ a portion of the GSK pipeline; namely, from Target to Clinical PoC, by forming multiple risk-sharing/reward-sharing alliances.
About EPIX
EPIX Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapeutics through the use of its proprietary and highly efficient in silico drug discovery platform. The company has a pipeline of internally-discovered drug candidates currently in clinical development to treat diseases of the central nervous system and lung conditions. EPIX also has collaborations with leading organizations, including GlaxoSmithKline, Amgen, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics and Bayer Schering Pharma. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.epixpharma.com.
This news release contains express or implied forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on current expectations of management. These statements relate to, among other things, our expectations regarding our drug discovery efforts, the future development of our in-silico methodologies and the benefits of our collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In particular, the risks and uncertainties include, among other things: risks that product candidates may fail in the clinic or may not be successfully marketed or manufactured; risks relating to our ability to advance the development of product candidates currently in the pipeline or in clinical trials; failure to obtain the financial resources to complete development of product candidates; our inability to further identify, develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; our inability to achieve commercial success for our products and technologies; our failure to comply with regulations relating to our products and product candidates, including FDA requirements; the risk that the FDA may interpret the results of our studies differently than we have; and risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the U.S. and internationally. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise. For additional information regarding these and other risks that we face, see the disclosure contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
Contact: EPIX
Kim C. Drapkin, 781-761-7602 Chief Financial Officer or
Pure Communications Kelly Hennessy, 617-227-0552
Source: EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
