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ALTANA
Pharma obtains first license to atugen’s proprietary lipids |
Berlin.
27th March, 2003
- atugen AG, a
private company focused on the elucidation of disease pathways, today
announced that it has granted ALTANA Pharma AG a non-exclusive license to
its nucleic acid transfection reagents for internal research purposes.
atugen will receive an annual licensing fee plus fees for the
reagents from ALTANA Pharma AG, the pharmaceuticals division of ALTANA AG
(NYSE: AAA) based in Bad Homburg, Germany.
The
atugen nucleic acid transfection reagents are extremely important for
optimal delivery of antisense and siRNA molecules into mammalian cells and
will give ALTANA Pharma the
scope to widen their research into determining the function of genes.
The new license is an addition to the target validation agreement
already ongoing between the two companies. No financial details were disclosed.
“atugen
has a large number of proprietary transfection reagents for mammalian cell
lines that research shows are the most efficient and low toxic nucleic acid
delivery vehicles on the market and can be combined with siRNA as well as
antisense molecules,” Dr Klaus
Giese, Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research
at atugen commented. “These
first transfection reagents we are outlicensing are custom-made for each
cell line to allow for continuous delivery of gene silencing molecules with
transfection rates greater than 90%. The
ability to transfect not only tumorigenic or transformed cell lines but also
primary cells significantly enlarges the scope of research”.
“Dr.
Ulrich Thibaut, Head of Discovery Research at ALTANA Pharma AG stated:
“These optimized lipids from atugen will enable us to fully exploit the
high potential of oligonucleotide technologies for our drug discovery
process.”
atugen AG,
located in Berlin, Germany, is a technology leader in disease pathway
elucidation. Its drug discovery
research tools are made available to the biopharma industry through a
variety of research collaborations including alliances to develop its own
in-house pipeline. atugen has proved its technology by establishing a
portfolio of validated targets and compounds inhibiting the PI 3-kinase
pathway. This disease pathway
plays an important role in most cancer types, diabetes, wound healing and
other indications. The company
offers proprietary KnockDown™ technologies (antisense molecules i.e.
GeneBlocs, improved synthetic siRNA, vector expression systems for siRNA and
ribozymes) and superior transfection reagents
GeneBlocs®
and KnockDown™ are trademarks of atugen
www.atugen.com
ALTANA AG (NYSE: AAA)
is an international pharmaceuticals and chemicals group with sales of EUR
2.6 billion in 2002 and about 10,000 employees worldwide. Its pharmaceuticals division, ALTANA Pharma in Constance,
concentrates on therapeutics, imaging and OTC medication, and focuses on
innovative pharmaceutical research in gastroenterology, respiratory and
oncology. ALTANA Pharma represents a group of more than 30 subsidiaries and
affiliates in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
www.altanapharma.com
atugen AG
Dr.
Zisi Fotev, Vice President Business Development
|
Tel:
+49
30 9489 2804
Fax:
+49-30 9489 2804
fotev@atugen.com
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Media Contact
Fiona
Brown, Northbank Communications
|
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7321 3875
Fax:
+44 (0)20 7321 3871
f.brown@northbankcommunications.com
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