Galenea And Otsuka Pharmaceutical Extend & Expand Schizophrenia Research Collaboration

Main Category: Schizophrenia
Also Included In: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 06 Oct 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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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.

Galenea Corp.