The News

Cellzome AG Announces Partnership Agreement with Novartis

20/09/2004

Heidelberg, Germany, 20 September, 2004 – Cellzome AG, the proteomics and drug discovery company, announced today that it has signed a research collaboration with Novartis to identify new drug targets and leads in a variety of disease areas.

Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will make a substantial equity investment in Cellzome Inc. (Cellzome AG’s parent company) and provide research funding for two years with the option of extending the collaboration for a further two years. There will also be lead compound development options for both companies in exchange for licenses, milestone payments and royalties.

The work will be conducted between Cellzome’s Heidelberg operations and Novartis’ Developmental and Molecular Pathways (DMP) group based in Cambridge, MA.

The collaboration combines Cellzome’s experience in chemical proteomics and pathway mapping with Novartis’ insights into particular disease pathways and its expertise in sensitized cellular screens. The aim will be to chart the physical and functional protein maps of key cellular pathways of a variety of diseases, and select the best protein targets within these pathways for the development of new drug candidates. In addition, Cellzome’s chemical proteomics expertise will help identify the role of active Novartis compounds in disease and their potential side effects, and thus improve the understanding of how these potential drugs might behave in man.

Dr. Jeff Porter, Global Head for the DMP group, said:
“Cellzome’s drug proteomics platform is a perfect complement to our pathway-focused discovery efforts at Novartis. We’re very enthusiastic about initiating this alliance.”

Tim Edwards, Cellzome’s CEO, said:
“We are delighted to be working with Novartis. This partnership represents a significant collaboration for us, and is a solid endorsement of Cellzome’s approach to drug discovery. By working with Novartis, we are able to demonstrate our ability to leverage our technology platform to accelerate drug discovery.”

Dr. Charles Cohen, Chairman of the Board of Cellzome commented: “The commitment of resource and expertise from Novartis will enhance Cellzome’s ability to use the technology platform for the development of proprietary drug candidates.”

Dr. Jeremy Levin, Global Head for Strategic Alliances at Novartis further stated: “This collaboration is an excellent fit within our growing portfolio of strategic alliances. We look forward to working with Cellzome to aggressively explore this important facet of biology and drug discovery.“

About Cellzome Inc.
Cellzome is a drug discovery company building an R&D pipeline in chronic diseases. Cellzome is leveraging its powerful drug proteomics engine to generate a pipeline of drug development candidates, both for in-house drug development and through partnership. Cellzome’s drug proteomics engine combines two proprietary methodologies, ‘chemical proteomics’, in which pharmacologically active compounds are used to affinity-capture their protein targets, and ‘pathway expansion’, which allows the elucidation of the proteins involved in molecular pathways. Cellzome’s drug discovery focuses on the interface between validated disease pathways, tractable medicinal chemistry and druggable targets.

Founded at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in May 2000, Cellzome has combined scientific leadership with experienced pharmaceutical management. The company currently has approx. 90 employees with offices in Heidelberg, Germany and Cambridge, UK. Recent research collaborations have included partnerships with Bayer and with Johnson & Johnson. Cellzome is continuing to build its in-house drug discovery capabilities.