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Avalon Pharmaceuticals and Merck & Co., Inc. Establish a Drug Discovery, Development and Commercialization Collaboration
03/06/2007
Germantown, MD - Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ and
NYSE ArcaEx: AVRX) today announced a drug discovery, development and
commercialization collaboration with Merck & Co., Inc. to identify and
develop inhibitors for an undisclosed target that is important in the
development of cancer.
Avalon will use its AvalonRx platform to screen a select set of compounds
from Merck's proprietary compound library and identify hits against this target
that is generally regarded as "intractable" based on the difficulty in
identifying inhibitors. Avalon will select compound families and optimize these
compounds to a preclinical candidate selection stage. Merck will be responsible
for the clinical development, regulatory approval and commercialization of any
potential product candidates.
Under the terms of the agreement Avalon may receive discovery, development,
regulatory and commercial milestones payments exceeding $200 million as well as
royalties on any potential future marketed products.
"We are excited about this innovative collaboration with Merck," said Kenneth
C. Carter, Ph.D., President and CEO of Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "The
combination of Merck's considerable drug discovery and development capabilities
and Avalon's unique approach for targeting otherwise intractable cancer pathways
should result in the identification of first-in-class drug candidates. This will
provide further validation for the AvalonRx technology and its potential for
identifying therapeutics based upon the ability to modulate pathways or targets
within living cells."
"We are very pleased with this agreement and believe this collaboration has
potential to provide significant synergy in drug discovery," said Lex Van der
Ploeg, Ph.D., Vice President, Merck Research Laboratories and Site Head Merck
Boston.
About Avalon Pharmaceuticals
Avalon Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company using its proprietary
technology, AvalonRx, to discover and develop cancer therapeutics. Avalon has a
lead product in Phase I clinical development (AVN944 - IMPDH inhibitor), as well
as preclinical programs to discover inhibitors for the beta-catenin and aurora
pathways now in late stage lead candidate optimization. Avalon also has
discovery programs on modulators of survivin function and a drug discovery
program targeting the MYC oncoprotein, one of the most important and previously
intractable cancer targets. The company has value generating partnerships with
MedImmune, Medarex, and Novartis. Avalon Pharmaceuticals was established in 1999
and is headquartered in Germantown, MD.
About AvalonRx
AvalonRx is a comprehensive, innovative and proprietary suite of technologies
based upon large-scale gene expression analysis. This platform facilitates drug
discovery by expanding the range of therapeutic targets for drug intervention,
including targets and target pathways frequently considered intractable using
conventional HTS approaches. The system allows more informed decisions about
which compounds to advance towards clinical trials, and facilitates drug
development through identification of biomarkers of efficacy that can stratify
patients or provide early indicators of response.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning
of the United States Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. These statements are
based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks, uncertainty
and changes in circumstances, which may cause actual results, performance or
achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance or
achievements. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in
nature are forward looking. Economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory
factors affecting Avalon’s business are examples of factors, among others, that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are also expressly
qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included in Avalon's
Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including its quarterly reports on
Form 10-Q and its annual report on Form 10-K. Avalon is under no obligation to
(and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its
forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise. |
