Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG and Oxagen Limited announced a collaboration in which Ingenium will use its INGENOtyping technology platform to develop animal models with defined gene alterations. The focus of the collaboration will be genes relating to metabolic diseases that have been located by Oxagen's target identification technology. No financial terms were disclosed.

"As we move further towards our goal of being a drug discovery company we need to access high-quality technologies to assist our target validation. Ingenium offers a very practical solution to our needs," commented Dr Mark Payton, Chief Executive Officer of Oxagen.

"Ingenium is pleased to collaborate with Oxagen as it enters drug target development," stated Michael Nehls, Chief Executive and Chief Scientific Officer at Ingenium. "INGENOtyping is extremely well-suited for accelerating the development of drug targets which are based on genetic findings because it allows researchers to work with models representing multiple types of functional gene alterations at an unprecedented high speed. Ingenium is encouraged by the outside validation from companies such as Oxagen and from the results INGENOtyping is producing for our internal research and development as well."

Ingenium's INGENOtyping technology is a high-speed second-generation tool for the in vivo validation of drug targets. INGENOtyping can provide in as little as four months a series of mammalian models that carry unique genetic alterations in any target gene of interest. These models include knockouts as well as more subtle functional alterations, such as increased and reduced gene target activity. The INGENOtyping technology is based on a genetically subtle chemical process that generates point mutations in genes and Ingenium's expertise in quickly and reliably producing and analyzing mammalian models of disease.

Oxagen is a biopharmaceutical company building a novel drug pipeline based on targets validated in man through its genetics platform. The Company specializes in target identification and validation in inflammatory and metabolic diseases and is creating a pipeline of novel, highly validated drug targets for licensing to partner companies and for in house development, together with panels of molecular diagnostic markers. Oxagen has built up unique family-based clinical genetics resources in its key therapeutic areas. These core resources are exploited through two complementary approaches, those of discovery and validation genetics.