Lonza accounces alliance with Odyssey Thera

09.03.2010 | from Lonza Group AG

09.03.2010, Lonza announced today the signing of an agreement with Odyssey Thera, Inc. to make Odyssey Thera’s proprietary Protein-fragment Complementation Assay technology, as part of compound profiling services, available to life science and drug discovery researchers. Additionally, Odyssey Thera has granted to Lonza an option to certain exclusive global technology licenses. The companies have also initiated collaborative technology, product development and marketing activities. Under terms of the agreement, Odyssey Thera has received an equity investment and is eligible to receive technology development funding, milestones and royalties on Lonza product and service sales, and additional payments upon option exercise. With the equity investment Lonza has become a minority shareholder in Odyssey Thera.

The technology enables the testing of lead compounds against a diverse panel of cellular pathways which generates a unique cellular “signature”. This signature is compared to an extensive database containing the signatures of known drugs and failed compounds to determine compound selectivity and potential side-effects. The Odyssey Thera approach is unique in that it looks at the whole cell response to treatment rather than focusing on a narrow set of possible drug targets.

“This agreement with Odyssey Thera enables Lonza to offer products and services from target identification, through screening and into predictive ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion). The combination of Odyssey Thera’s Protein- fragment Complementation Assay (PCA) technology and known drug and toxicant database with Lonza’s expertise with primary cells and transfection will enable researchers to perform the most relevant assays in the most relevant cells”, said Teun van der Heide, Ph.D., Head of Research Solutions at Lonza.

“Our uniquely contextual assays and analytical strategies, combined with Lonza’s world- leading cellular analysis tools and marketing capabilities, creates a winning combination”, said John Westwick, Ph.D., Odyssey’s President and CEO. “We look forward to working with Lonza to drive commercialization of these valuable assets.”

About Odyssey Thera
Odyssey Thera, Inc. is a drug discovery technology company focused on improving the success rate of new therapeutic development. Odyssey Thera's technology measures disease- relevant pathway activity within living human cells. To learn more about Odyssey Thera, please visit www.odysseythera.com.

For further Information
Lonza Group Ltd Head Corporate Communications Michael Frizberg Tel +41 61 316 8624 Fax +41 61 316 9624 michael.frizberg@lonza.com

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