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Good news that they are announcing a drug I've never heard of that's already in phase I trials for MS.



Celera Genomics Announces the Sale of Its Cathepsin S Inhibitor Program to Schering AG; Transaction Completes Celera's Planned Exit from Small Molecule Development

Business Wire - June 21, 2006 - Celera Genomics, an Applera Corporation business, today announced that Schering AG has acquired its cathepsin S inhibitor small molecule drug program for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The financial terms of the transaction include an upfront cash payment of $5 million, half of which is payable to Celera upon closing of this agreement, and the remaining half will be payable upon the successful transfer of Celera's cathepsin S inhibitor assets, which is expected to be completed within four months.

If this program meets all developmental and commercial milestone events and results in drugs that are approved and commercialized in key geographical markets, it may generate future milestone payments to Celera of up to $360 million. In addition, Celera will be entitled to percentage royalty payments up to the low double digits based on annual sales of any drugs commercialized from the program. Closing of the transaction is subject to receipt of any necessary approvals.

Celera's cathepsin S inhibitor, CRA-028129, entered a Phase I trial in September 2005 in a single center study being conducted at the Christchurch Clinical Studies Trust (CSST) in Christchurch, New Zealand.

"We are excited by the potential that this cathepsin S inhibitor program has for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and how it will complement our pipeline," said Darlene Jody, MD, Head of Specialized Therapeutics Global Business Unit at Schering Group. "Multiple Sclerosis will be the first indication we will target with this program focusing on our continuing commitment to develop innovative treatments for MS. This will add to our existing Phase III program exploring high dose interferon beta-1b and our Phase II program for alemtuzumab in MS."

"We're pleased with this transaction as it combines Schering AG's expertise in the field of autoimmune diseases with the encouraging data from our cathepsin S inhibitor program thus far," said Kathy Ordonez, President of Celera Genomics. "This is a significant step for us as it completes our planned exit from small molecule development, allowing us to now focus our resources on our core business of molecular diagnostics and proteomics discovery."

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Dignan,

We are seeing more and more of these takeovers by the big companies. The MS $ is large and worth chasing.

This will add to our existing Phase III program exploring high dose interferon beta-1b and our Phase II program for alemtuzumab in MS."

Alemtuzumab is Campath - which I thought was owned by Genzyme. Can't keep track of all these drugs and their owners.

We must be due some Phase III trial results soon from some of the drugs in the pipeline.

Ian

Yes, we are due some results soon. What is the least exciting trial in the phase III section? In my opinion, probably the Rebif reformulation trial, and that's the only one I think we'll be hearing about in 2006. 2007 doesn't look much better, I think the only one we'll be hearing about in 2007 is the higher dose Betaseron trial. But then from 2008 on, it's all sunshine and happiness. It's kind of like some sort of doomsday cult that predicts the end of the world but it's always a couple of years off.