elbion and Wyeth Enter Collaboration to Develop New Treatments for Schizophrenia

06-Feb-2007

Elbion NV announced it has entered a research and license agreement with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, around elbion's phosphodiesterase 10 (PDE10) program for CNS disorders with an initial focus on schizophrenia.

The agreement includes an upfront payment, milestones and research funding potentially totalling up to $110 million over the life of the agreement. Wyeth will also pay elbion royalties on worldwide annual net sales of products developed under the agreement.

PDE 10 is highly expressed in the neurons in the brain associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and psychosis. By inhibiting PDE10 activity it is thought that the function of neurons could be improved offering a new mechanism of action for the treatment of schizophrenia, an area of high unmet medical need, and also for other neurological conditions.

elbion and Wyeth will develop new chemical entities for the inhibition of PDE10 drawing on elbion's tremendous expertise in developing new leads and compounds for PDE targets. Wyeth will be responsible for further clinical development of selected compounds. The research work supporting the collaboration will be carried out at elbion's R&D facility at Radebeul, Germany and also involve scientists at elbion's headquarters in Leuven.

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