Xenome Enters Into Joint Research Collaboration to Discover Novel Peptide Therapeutics with Amylin Pharmaceuticals
BRISBANE, Australia, Nov 27, 2007 -- Xenome Ltd., a leader in developing unique peptides for therapeutic applications in a variety of diseases, today announced the signing of a joint research collaboration agreement with Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The partnership will focus on the discovery and development of novel peptide therapeutics for a range of metabolic and musculoskeletal diseases.
In addition to the joint research collaboration agreement, Amylin has made an equity investment in Xenome matched by investments from Queensland BioCapital Funds and Innovis Australia.
Under the collaboration, Amylin will apply its proprietary screening technologies to evaluate the therapeutic potential of the peptides from Xenome's proprietary bioactive peptide library derived from natural sources. Amylin will have the right to select and exclusively license lead candidates resulting from a screening program in metabolic and musculoskeletal disease for further development and commercialization in exchange for milestone payments and royalties payable to Xenome.
"This collaboration with Amylin is an important strategic move for Xenome as it provides us with funding, and the ability to leverage our peptide chemistry capabilities in a therapeutic area outside of Xenome's current focus." commented Xenome's CEO Lewis Lee. "Amylin's research organization has successfully created several peptide therapies for the treatment of diabetes and potentially obesity."
"We are pleased to be working with Xenome," said Michael Hanley, Ph.D., Vice President, Discovery Research at Amylin. "Amylin is committed to bringing innovative medicines with life-changing therapeutic potential to patients. This mutually beneficial collaboration combines Xenome's proprietary peptide library with Amylin's therapeutic expertise and creates valuable opportunities to discover and develop novel therapeutics."
To date, Xenome's focus has been in the discovery and development of novel leads for the treatment of pain and inflammatory conditions. Xenome's most advanced clinical product, Xen2174, is currently in a Phase 1b/2a clinical trial for treatment of cancer pain. This clinical trial is near finalization and the interim results are encouraging, providing the Company the confidence to initiate a Phase 2b clinical program in 2008.
Xenome has generated a peptide database, containing over 8,000 peptides from natural sources. From this collection Xenome has synthesized and characterized over 2500 individual peptides to generate a novel library for new drug discovery. This library complements additional peptide libraries at Xenome comprised of other novel peptide analogues.