Pharmacopeia, an innovator in the discovery and development of novel small molecule therapeutics, announced an agreement to extend its collaboration with Schering-Plough until April of 2007. Within this most recent collaboration between the companies, initiated in 2003, research support to Pharmacopeia from Schering-Plough had been due to end in October of 2006.

The terms of the agreement extension call for Schering-Plough to continue to pay Pharmacopeia research funding for ten full-time chemistry employees until April of 2007 and, as before, to pay pre-clinical, clinical and regulatory milestones to the extent therapeutic candidates that result from the collaboration advance through development and toward commercialization. Further, Pharmacopeia will continue to be entitled to receive royalty payments on sales of any therapeutic products resulting from the collaboration, a Pharmacopeia release said.

The goal of the collaboration has been, and will continue to be during the extended research term, to deliver development-ready therapeutic candidates for the Schering-Plough pipeline. The companies agreed to extend the collaboration to continue to advance one of the ongoing programs toward this goal.

"Schering-Plough has been an excellent and valued collaborator for Pharmacopeia over more than a decade," stated Les Browne, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Pharmacopeia. "While we expect to wind-down the research collaboration after this extension, enabling Pharmacopeia to redeploy resources, it is clearly advantageous for both companies if we harness the considerable knowledge-base built up by Pharmacopeia scientists to attempt to bring the remaining collaboration programme forward to development."

Pharmacopeia's most advanced internal programme is a dual-acting angiotensin and endothelin receptor antagonist (DARA) for hypertension and diabetic nephropathy that is currently in preclinical development. Pharmacopeia's internal programs in advanced optimization are: JAK3 inhibitors (immunomodulators for multiple potential indications, including transplant rejection, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis); CCR1 antagonists (with potential in inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis); adenosine A2A antagonists (with potential in neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's); and ?vß3/?vß5 inhibitors (with potential to block angiogenesis in cancer and inflammation).

Pharmacopeia currently has eleven partnered compounds in development with major pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. Five of these compounds (representing four partnered, therapeutic programs) are currently in Phase I clinical trials for rheumatoid arthritis, an allergy/asthma indication, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and oncology. Six compounds are in preclinical development. Pharmacopeia will receive milestone payments for those programs that successfully advance through clinical development and royalties on the sales of any compounds that are commercialized.