PARIS, Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sanofi-aventis announced today the signature of a global licensing and collaboration agreement with Novozymes for the development and marketing of a potential new antibiotic.
The drug candidate is an antimicrobial peptide named Plectasin NZ2114 that targets the treatment of severe infections, such as pneumonia and septicaemia, caused by bacteria like Staphylococcus and Streptococcus.
Under the terms of the agreement sanofi-aventis has been granted an exclusive worldwide license for the development, registration and commercialization of the drug. The two companies will jointly work to develop and implement commercial-scale manufacturing of the Plectasin NZ2114 drug substance, with the goal of introducing a recombinant process building on Novozymes’ proprietary expression technology.
“Plectasin NZ2114 is the first drug candidate that Novozymes has outlicensed for further preclinical and clinical development. Teaming up with one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world is the type of collaborations we were looking for,” said Per Falholt, Executive Vice President, Research & Development, Novozymes.
“The innovative mechanism of action of Plectasin NZ2114 makes it potentially active against bacteria resistant to currently available treatments. We are looking forward to developing Plectasin NZ2114 for the treatment of severe infections such as pneumonia, septicaemia, and complicated skin and soft tissue infections,” declared Dr. Marc Cluzel, Senior Vice President, Research & Development, sanofi-aventis.
About Plectasin NZ2114
Plectasin NZ2114 is a variant of plectasin, a novel class of antimicrobials, active against resistant and sensitive gram-positive bacteria like Staphylococcus and Streptococcus.
About Novozymes
“Novozymes is the world leader in bioinnovation. Together with customers across a broad array of industries we create tomorrow’s industrial biosolutions, improving our customers’ business and the use of our planet’s resources. Read more at www.novozymes.com.”
About sanofi-aventis
Sanofi-aventis, a leading global pharmaceutical company, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions to improve the lives of everyone. Sanofi-aventis is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: SAN) and in New York (NYSE: SNY - News).
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include product development, product potential projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to future events, operations, products and services, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words “expects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates,” “plans” and similar expressions. Although sanofi-aventis’ management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of sanofi-aventis, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, future clinical data and analysis, including post marketing, decisions by regulatory authorities, such as the FDA or the EMEA, regarding whether and when to approve any drug, device or biological application that may be filed for any such product candidates as well as their decisions regarding labelling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of such products candidates, the absence of guarantee that the products candidates if approved will be commercially successful, the future approval and commercial success of therapeutic alternatives as well as those discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the AMF made by sanofi-aventis, including those listed under “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in sanofi-aventis’ annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2007. Other than as required by applicable law, sanofi-aventis does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.
CONTACT: Jean-Marc Podvin, sanofi-aventis, +33-1-53-77-42-23, jean-marc.podvin@sanofi-aventis.com
Source: sanofi-aventis
