CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and TOKYO, Oct. 6 MA-Galenea-Otsuka-exp
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and TOKYO, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Galenea Corp. and
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. announced today the extension and expansion of
their research and development collaboration. The two companies have been
working together since January 2005 to discover and develop novel therapies
for schizophrenia and other central nervous system (CNS) diseases. The new
agreement calls for a one year extension of the initial five-year alliance and
brings the total committed funding for the collaboration to over $75 million.
Mark Benjamin, Chief Executive Officer of Galenea, said, "We are delighted
that Otsuka has recognized the substantial progress made by Galenea over the
last three years. This partnership is already producing some very exciting
results that may one day lead to new and fundamentally better treatments for
patients suffering from schizophrenia."
Galenea has made significant advances in several projects within the
collaboration, including the progression of several molecules to the lead
optimization stage. Each of these compounds represents a potential therapeutic
with a novel mechanism of action for treating the impairments in memory and
cognition common in schizophrenia and related disorders. With Otsuka's
support, Galenea also recently completed the construction of state-of-the-art
chemistry labs at their Cambridge facility, complementing their existing
capabilities in neurobiology, electrophysiology, high-throughput screening and
behavioral pharmacology.
"I am pleased that Otsuka has increased both the time and the resources
dedicated to this collaboration," commented Professor Susumu Tonegawa, Ph.D.,
1987 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, professor at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT), Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Director of
the RIKEN-Picower-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics, and Galenea
co-founder.
Otsuka will have exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and
commercialize any development candidates generated during the collaboration.
Galenea will receive milestone and royalty payments, or alternatively may
participate in profit-sharing. Galenea also retains rights to additional
targets and associated compounds as well as to the collaboration's
ground-breaking drug screening technologies.
"We are enthusiastic about the continuation of this collaboration with
Galenea and see good prospects for the selection of several development
candidates in the near term," commented Taro Iwamoto, Ph.D., President and
Representative Director of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. "There are still a
number of incompletely defined CNS diseases that afflict patients worldwide,
although therapies for these diseases have shown impressive progress in recent
years. At Otsuka we have been striving to advance innovative therapies for
patients through our antipsychotic agent ABILIFY, along with compounds in
earlier phases of development. Through this collaboration with Galenea, we
hope to enhance our research in the CNS field, taking advantage of an
unconventional point of view and scientific approach at one of the most
advanced places in neuroscience to develop next-generation therapies for CNS
diseases," added Dr. Iwamoto.
About Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Founded in 1964, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is a global healthcare
company with the corporate philosophy: 'Otsuka -- people creating new products
for better health worldwide.' Otsuka researches, develops, manufactures and
markets innovative and original products, with a focus on pharmaceutical
products for the treatment of diseases and consumer products for the
maintenance of everyday health. Otsuka is committed to being a corporation
that creates global value, adhering to the high ethical standards required of
a company involved in human health and life, maintaining a dynamic corporate
culture, and working in harmony with local communities and the natural
environment. The Otsuka Pharmaceutical Group comprises 106 companies and
employs approximately 33,000 people in 18 countries and regions worldwide.
Otsuka and its consolidated subsidiaries earned yen 928.4 billion (approx. US
$9.2 billion*) in annual revenue in fiscal year ended in March 2008. For more
information on Otsuka please visit the company's web site at
http://www.otsuka-global.com.
*Exchange rate as of the end of March 2008.
About Galenea Corp.
Galenea, an emerging biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, is dedicated to enhancing and saving lives through the
discovery of novel therapies for CNS diseases. Galenea has licensed
technologies developed in the laboratories of Professor Susumu Tonegawa of MIT
and Professor Maria Karayiorgou of Rockefeller University (now at Columbia
University Medical Center) to generate breakthrough treatments for the memory
and cognition impairments associated with schizophrenia and related disorders.
For more information about Galenea, please visit the company's website at
http://www.galenea.com.
SOURCE Galenea Corp.
