Genfit extends its drug discovery strategic alliances with Sanofi-Aventis and Solvay
Released on = February 20, 2007, 7:02 am
Press Release Author = Milestones for GENFIT
Industry = Biotech
Press Release Summary = GENFIT (Alternext: ALGFT; ISIN: FR0004163111), a biopharmaceutical company committed to drug discovery and development in the fields of cardiovascular, inflammatory and metabolic diseases, has announced the renewal of its drug discovery strategic alliances with the Sanofi-Aventis and Solvay Groups.
Press Release Body = Lille (France), Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA), on 20th February 2007 - GENFIT (Alternext: ALGFT; ISIN:FR0004163111), a biopharmaceutical company committed to drug discovery and development in the fields of cardiovascular, inflammatory and metabolic diseases, has announced the renewal of its drug discovery strategic alliances with the SANOFI-AVENTIS and SOLVAY Groups.
This agreement renewal results from the high quality and performance of such alliances with a view to identifying and developing new treatments for cardiometabolic disease and its different indications.
The renewed alliance with SANOFI-AVENTIS mainly concerns the following: - A commitment to extend the current alliance for an additional two years (up until December 2008), thus representing the third renewal of the alliance initially signed in 1999, when GENFIT was first established. - GENFIT has been collaborating with SANOFI-AVENTIS on several projects, particularly pharmacological characterization and the selection of Sanofi-Aventis' best drug candidates to act on an innovative target involved in metabolic and inflammatory mechanisms as well as the launch of a new programme based on a new target involved in inflammatory diseases. - GENFIT has been receiving annual payments in terms of R&D and has reached milestones in its clinical development. - GENFIT will collect royalties in case of the sale of such drugs.
Within the scope of this industrial alliance, GENFIT uses all its drug discovery technologies (genomics, proteomics, pharmacology and screening) as well as the many tools centred on nuclear receptors such as the SNuRMs (Selective Nuclear Receptor Modulators) platform. The latter has already enabled new proof of concept to be established in this field. In this way, several screening tests have been previously developed and optimised, thus validating the milestones reached.
The alliance with SOLVAY, started in 2002, has also been renewed according to the following terms: - The new agreement has been signed for a three-year period, up to December 2009. - GENFIT will pursue the collaboration on the compounds selected from their previous collaboration. First-in-class products, those acting on a completely new target, are currently in preclinical development at SOLVAY. These compounds are expected to enter Phase I clinical assays in the coming months. - Furthermore, based on the excellent results recorded since 2002, the agreement announced at this time also includes a new programme concerning the validation of a highly innovative, new target, and selection of additional development candidates. - GENFIT collects yearly R&D payments and milestones as well as royalties in the case of sale.
It is important to recall that the initial objective of this industrial collaboration targets the identification and development of new selective nuclear receptor modulators playing a key role in the metabolism of lipoproteins and the formation of atherosclerosis.
GENFIT'S main strengths in this programme lie in its ability to make scientific and technical competence available in nuclear receptors and its mastery of several pertinent models of reverse transport of cholesterol and atherosclerosis. Finally, GENFIT has amplified its assistance by providing innovative molecular strategies, particularly as a result of its SnuRMS* technological platform and directed approaches to mutagenesis.
Jean-François Mouney, Chairman & CEO, highlights: ''Despite the different mergers in the pharmaceutical industry, GENFIT has succeeded, year after year, in extending and renewing its alliances, as well as in strengthening them. These successes based on the efficiency of our technological platforms also help to validate the accuracy of our scientific approaches. In less than seven years, GENFIT has succeeded in bringing, along with SANOFI-AVENTIS and SOLVAY, four molecules to tests in man. We hope that our common research will lead to blockbusters in the field of cardiometabolic disease and related risks, a field in which existing molecules are still suffering from a lack in terms of the benefits expected, toxic or adverse effects.''
* About the SNuRMs platform Pharmacological research regarding nuclear receptors is quite intense today in the whole of the pharmaceutical industry and GENFIT is one of the leaders in this field. The team of Professors Fruchart and Staels, co-founders of GENFIT, has been one of the first to demonstrate the essential role of nuclear receptors, particularly PPAR receptors, in the control of the metabolism of cholesterol, lipids and glucose.
Since its inception, GENFIT has set up and validated different tools enabling it to characterize compounds according to their pharmacological activity, expression profile on certain target genes and the profile for recruiting co-factors. With strong competence in medicinal chemistry and molecular modelling, GENFIT identifies and develops a second generation of drugs that targets nuclear receptors able to modulate, selectively, gene expression that is indispensable for the proper functioning of the cell: SNuRMs (Selective Nuclear Receptor Modulators).
With respect to reference molecules, these selective nuclear receptor modulators act differently according to their location and/or specialization of the cells being considered. The fundamental element of this approach relies on the controlled expression of genes in the cells being targeted. Through this process, GENFIT therefore obtains molecules that are potentially safer and more effective.
About GENFIT An emerging biopharmaceutical company, GENFIT studies the deregulation of genes implicated in the most widespread diseases. GENFIT's teams identify new therapeutic targets and develop drug candidates. GENFIT's programmes, conducted in partnership with industrial pharmaceutical companies such as SANOFI-AVENTIS, PIERRE FABRE, FOURNIER (SOLVAY Group), MERCK AG, SERVIER, KOWA, deal with the most prevalent metabolic and inflammatory diseases. GENFIT's specific development of drugs focuses on global cardiovascular risks, attacking several pathologies (atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity, etc.) simultaneously, using a single molecule. With facilities in Lille and Cambridge (USA), the Company was founded by Jean-François MOUNEY, Chairman & CEO, with the scientific support of Jean-Charles FRUCHART, President. At the end of 2006, its staff was comprised of 120 employees, including 100 scientists (www.genfit.com).
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