Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it has achieved the first research milestone in its collaboration with Amgen Inc. The collaboration utilizes Anadys' proprietary affinity based screening technology ATLAS against both Anadys' and Amgen's compound collections to discover novel compounds against a specific target provided by Amgen.

Under the terms of the collaboration that was formed in February 2003, Anadys is designing, configuring, and running an ATLAS assay to screen compound collections against the target provided by Amgen. Financial terms of the collaboration include an upfront payment, R&D funding, and potential for milestone payments and royalties. Amgen has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize any products resulting from compounds discovered in the collaboration.

"We are very pleased to be collaborating with Amgen and are delighted to have achieved the first research milestone under the collaboration," said Steve Worland, chief scientific officer of Anadys.