Aventis Pharma and Millennium add 11 Discovery Projects to Joint Drug Development Pipeline for Inflammatory Disease

14-Aug-2001

Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. the pharmaceutical company of Aventis (NYSE: AVE) and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MLNM) today announced that they have expanded their joint development pipeline to include 11 discovery projects that were previously being pursued outside the joint collaboration. The new drug discovery assets include chemokine receptors, kinases and integrins, which are major druggable target classes in inflammatory disease research. The additional drug discovery projects were added to the collaboration by both companies as they aggressively pursues the joint development and commercialization of small molecule drugs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases in five major areas: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis.

With the addition of the 11 new discovery projects, the Aventis-Millennium alliance now has approximately 50 jointly funded discovery projects, the majority of which have advanced to high-throughput screening and chemical optimization phases. With the combined efforts of more than 350 scientists from the two organizations, these initiatives will pave the way to building the industry's leading inflammatory disease pipeline, with the goal of moving one or more compounds into human clinical trials as early as the first half of 2003.

After formation of the alliance in June of 2000, initial joint research activities by Aventis and Millennium combined pre-existing programs and formed cross-platform task forces to capitalize on synergies in chemistry and biology. The collaborators have successfully brought joint efforts at both companies to near full-strength operational levels, resulting in an integrated and powerful gene identification, gene validation, and drug discovery program in the inflammation area. Chemists and pharmacologists are actively engaged in small molecule optimization efforts to advance drug discovery projects downstream. Teams from the two companies are now working to establish commercial priorities and related strategies to support Early Development Candidates (EDCs) as they move into human clinical trials.

“When Aventis and Millennium joined forces one year ago to collaborate 50/50 in the discovery, development and commercialization of drugs to treat inflammatory disease, it was the first biotechnology/pharmaceutical company alliance of its kind. Today, we believe that the progress achieved thus far demonstrates the combined strength and shared vision of the two companies," said Mark Levin, chairman and chief executive officer at Millennium. “As Millennium expands the breadth and depth of our downstream capabilities, we are increasingly focused on building critical mass in our key franchise areas, and committed to evolving our exclusive alliances to achieve a strong market presence that will ultimately address the unmet medical needs of patients around the world."

“Aventis is extremely pleased that the alliance with Millennium has achieved such significant goals in the past year,” said Dr. Frank L. Douglas, executive vice president and head of Drug Innovation & Approval for Aventis Pharma AG. “We are particularly excited by the expansion of the alliance to significantly augment our joint pipeline in anti-inflammatory drug development. Aventis continues to be optimistic and aggressive in working with Millennium to build the world’s leading program for the development and commercialization of drugs for inflammatory diseases.”

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/4290/aventis-pharma-and-millennium-add-11-discovery-projects-to-joint-drug-development-pipeline-for-inflammatory-disease.html