Sequenom, Inc. announced a drug target collaboration agreement with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a division of The Procter & Gamble Company.
Under terms of the agreement, Sequenom licensed P&G exclusive rights to its proprietary osteoporosis targets that were discovered using human genetics with the expectation that P&G will develop therapeutics against these targets. P&G will validate Sequenom's targets in osteoporosis biological and animal models to identify screening candidates for therapeutic development. In addition to royalties on therapeutic product sales, Sequenom is entitled to receive license and milestone payments that could reach $30 million based on the successful clinical development and launch of new drugs in multiple targets. Sequenom will retain all diagnostic rights.
"We believe that Sequenom's novel methodologies have produced a very promising series of osteoporosis targets, which linked with our expertise in bone biology and clinical development, has the potential to lead to a new series of breakthrough therapeutics for the treatment of osteoporosis," said Douglas W. Axelrod, M.D., Ph.D., R&D manager for discovery and early development at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals.
"We believe clinical genetics is an excellent entry point to identify disease modifying targets," said Toni Schuh, Ph.D., Sequenom's president and chief executive officer. "Our data indicate that these targets significantly impact the development of osteoporosis, and we expect them to be the basis for developing innovative and novel therapeutics for the disease."
Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals is one of only a small number of R&D organizations in the world capable of performing the complex biological and animal models necessary for pre-clinical development in osteoporosis. P&G is also a leader in the $4 billion osteoporosis therapeutics market, with over $700 million in sales in 2003 for their leading drug Actonel. Actonel was discovered and developed at P&G, and is currently co-marketed worldwide with Aventis.