The News

Gruenenthal and Ingenium Enter INGENOtyping™ Agreement

25/02/2004

Munich and Aachen, Germany, February 25, 2004 - Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG and Gruenenthal GmBH announced today a collaboration in which Ingenium will use its INGENOtyping™ technology platform to develop animal models with defined gene alterations. The focus of the collaboration will be the development of unique animal models for genes relating to novel therapeutic discoveries in Gruenenthal’s major therapeutic focus area of pain. No financial terms were disclosed.

Gruenenthal is an established leader in pain research and Ingenium is pleased to collaborate with them to meet their research and development goals,” stated Michael  Nehls, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive at Ingenium. “Our results to date for producing models, both for our internal research and for our partners, demonstrate the power and speed of the technology, and we continue to prove that INGENOtypingTM can provide a mouse model of choice in an unprecedented time frame of only a few months.
Drug discovery is a long process where every day invested has an impact on the bottom line. The time-savings of the INGENOtypingTM platform are therefore significant in comparison to other technologies.” We are looking forward to the opportunity to employ Ingenium's unique technology for the rapid generation of mouse models,” commented Klaus Langner, Ph.D., Head of Research at Gruenenthal. "We hope that INGENOtyping™ will allow us to validate a couple of very promising novel targets for the treatment of pain that we have identified in the course of our five year molecular pain project sponsored in part by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF)." Ingenium’s INGENOtypingTM technology is a high-speed second-generation tool for the in vivo validation of drug targets. INGENOtypingTM can provide in as little as four months a series of mammalian models that carry unique genetic alterations in any target gene of interest. These models include knockouts as well as more subtle functional alterations, such as increased and reduced gene target activity. The INGENOtypingTM technology is based on a genetically subtle chemical process that generates point mutations in genes and Ingenium’s expertise in quickly and reliably producing and analyzing mammalian models of disease. Grünenthal Ingenium INGENOtyping™ Agreement Gruenenthal is a family-owned, expansive, innovative and cooperative company based in Aachen, Germany. Gruenenthal's Research & Development is focused on pain. Efforts for this indication are supported by basic research reaching as far back as the identification of potential new targets. Other therapeutic fields of strategic interest are gynaecology and antiinfectives. Gruenenthal's main markets are Europe,Latin America and China.

The basis of Ingenium’s business is its knowledge and expertise in generating the biological information critical to the discovery, validation and development of therapeutics. Ingenium’s biology-based target discovery technology, Deductive Genomics®, involves a functional genomics analysis of an entire mammalian genome to locate novel therapeutic entry points to treat disease. From the breadth of knowledge generated by Deductive Genomics®, Ingenium is currently advancing a pipeline of novel models and biologically validated drug targets in the areas of inflammatory bowel disease, neurodegeneration and obesity/diabetes. Ingenium has research partnership agreements with Bayer AG, Elan Corporation, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Sequenom Inc., Oxagen Ltd. and Wyeth, in addition to numerous international academic collaborations. The company benefits from funding from premier investors, an experienced management team, top industry advisors and a growing patent portfolio.