Glenmark Pharmaceuticals purchases rights to two therapeutic antibodies from Chromos

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd has announced that Glenmark Pharmaceuticals S.A., the wholly-owned Swiss subsidiary of the Company and Chromos Molecular Systems Inc. (Chromos) (TSX:CHR) of British Columbia, Canada, on July 19, 2007 has announced that they have completed the purchase by Glenmark of Chromos' two New biological Entities (NBE's) CHR-1103 and CHR-1201. The Two NBE's are humanized monoclonal therapeutic antibodies.

Under the terms of the transaction agreements between the Company and Chromos, the Company has purchased all rights to the two products as well as rights to use Chromos proprietary ACE System technology for cell line development for use with respect to CHR-1103 and CHR-1201. The Company holds the worldwide rights for further development, registration and commercialization of these products. Financial terms of the transaction are not to be released.

CHR-1103 and CHR-1201 are part of a validated class of drugs known as SAMI’s (selective adhesion molecule inhibitors) that includes such drugs as ReoPro (Centocor / Lilly), Raptiva (Genentech / xoma) and Tysabri (Biogen / Elan). CHR-1103 is a broad anti inflammatory agent with a novel mechanism of action, being developed initially to treat a multiple scierosis, for which there is no treatment approved at present. The Company plans to initiate Phase I clinical trials in 2008 and complete Phase I on CHR-1103 by March 2009. CHR-1201 is an anti-thrombolytic humanized monocional antibody, which the Company plans to develop initially to treat acute stroke. The Company plans to start Phase I on CHR-1201 by March 2009.

On this occasion, Glenn Saldanha, Managing Director and CEO of the Company stated, "This is a very important addition to our pipeline of Novel Biological Entitles. These two NBE's would help accelerate our pipeline in the biologics space."

Michael Buschle, President - Biologics at Glenmark Switzerland said, "These therapies hold a lot of promise in areas of high unmet medical need and also fit very well within our areas of focus. We are delighted with the addition of these two highly exciting molecules to our rapidly pipeline".

Source : Equity Bulls

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