Israeli biotech company Compugen (Nasdaq: CGEN) today announced an agreement with US-based Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:MLNM) to co-develop software tools to predict protein pathways for drug discovery and development.
The two companies will share the costs of the project and the rights to certain aspects of the technology developed.
Millenium Pharmaceuticals is engaged in the commercial application of genetics, genomics and bioinformatics to develop a range of therapeutic and diagnostic products. The company trades on Nasdaq at a $7 billion capitalization.
Compugen said the agreement combined Millennium's knowledge of applying high-throughput genomics technologies with Compugen's strength in predictive biology accomplished through the merger of computational technologies and molecular biology and medicine. The agreement provides for a multidisciplinary research and development team, combining molecular biologists, mathematicians and computer scientists from both companies, to pursue the objective of advancing the understanding of protein pathways through the analysis of the results of selected Millennium DNA chip data.
Compugen president and CEO Mor Amitai, Ph.D., said, “This partnership with Millennium is a significant milestone in our advancement towards protein pathway prediction and an important validation of our technological strength. We are confident that the results of this joint research will help scientists to better leverage high-throughput genomic data in the understanding of the molecular basis of disease and in the development of new therapeutics,"
Millennium Pharmaceuticals International R&D Alliance Development vice president Yigal Koltin, Ph.D said, " This marks Millennium's first collaboration with an Israeli biotechnology company. Compugen, a global leader in predictive biology, exemplifies the strength of Israel as a center of scientific excellence in the life sciences. We will continue to seek additional opportunities for partnerships within the Israeli biotechnology industry.”
Since its inception, Compugen has focused on deciphering the underlying mechanisms of molecular biology. Compugen said its evolution has progressed into the field of proteomics, and that this agreement with Millennium was a significant component of its ongoing efforts in the emerging, and potentially extremely important, area of protein pathway understanding and prediction.
Compugen operates computational technologies with biology and medicine to enhance drug discovery and development. The company's predictive biology technologies support two complementary product development and commercialization divisions. Compugen's BioApplications division offers products and services that are designed to enable the discovery and functional analysis of genes, proteins and cell processes. Compugen's Novel Genomics division is developing human therapeutic and diagnostic products based on target genes, proteins and other intellectual property discovered through the company's research activities.
Compugen shares closed on Nasdaq on Tuesday at $4.10, reflecting a $106 million market capitalization.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 20 March, 2002