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July 6, 2004
Chiron Acquires Sagres Discovery
For Immediate Release
- Acquisition Deepens Quality of
Chiron's R&D Pipeline -
EMERYVILLE, Calif., Jul 6, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall
via COMTEX/ -- Chiron Corporation
(Nasdaq: CHIR) and Sagres Discovery
announced today Chiron has acquired
Sagres. Sagres, a privately held company
headquartered in Davis, Calif., focuses
on the discovery and validation of
targets with potential application
to the development of cancer therapeutics.
Financial terms of the acquisition
were not disclosed.
"This is a unique opportunity
to advance our goal of building a
competitive, balanced pipeline for
Chiron," said Kenneth Bair, senior
vice president and head of research,
Chiron BioPharmaceuticals. "Sagres
has a wealth of in vivo validated
targets, including kinases and antibodies,
that will increase both the quantity
and quality of targets available to
us for development. With the wealth
of targets from Sagres, we expect
to be able to maximize the value of
our collaboration with Xoma Ltd. and
our small molecule drug discovery
program for the development and commercialization
of new drugs for the treatment of
cancer."
"We are delighted to have the
technology and drug targets our team
has developed over the last several
years joined with the resources and
talents of Chiron," said Dr.
Ali Fattaey, chief scientific officer,
Sagres Discovery. "The incredible
amount of novel discoveries generated
from the Oncogenome(TM) has been changing
the way we view gene function and
cooperation in cancer development,
and is refining how we select targets
for cancer drug discovery and development.
With Chiron, these discoveries now
have a fantastic opportunity to be
translated into novel drug candidates,
and in time, actual drugs that will
benefit cancer patients."
Sagres Discovery technology has created
the Oncogenome(TM), a comprehensive
assembly of genes that cause cancer.
The technology combines gene isolation
and in vivo biological validation
into one high-throughput process.
Through molecular profiling of human
disease tissues, clinical relevance
is established concurrently with gene
discovery and validation. This technology
is able to discriminate between those
few genetic factors that cause disease
(oncogenes and tumor suppressors)
and the confounding factors that respond
to disease processes. Only genes that
cause the cancer phenotype are recovered
and downstream effects are specifically
excluded.
As a result, the Sagres Discovery
approach eliminates significant time-
and resource-intensive secondary screening
required by most other approaches.
This allows Sagres Discovery to advance
targets into discovery sooner and
with more confidence.
About Chiron
Through its global Blood Testing,
Vaccines and BioPharmaceuticals businesses,
Chiron Corporation addresses human
suffering with more than 50 diverse
products to detect, prevent and treat
disease worldwide. The company's consistent
success has come from its pioneering
science, skill in delivering innovations
in biotechnology and disciplined business
approach. Chiron believes that science
has the power to improve people's
lives and harnesses that power to
transform public health.
This year, Chiron Vaccines celebrates
100 years of advancing medicine with
the anniversary of two founding companies.
In 1904, Emil von Behring and Achille
Sclavo independently started companies
in Germany and Italy, respectively,
dedicated to the research, development
and manufacture of vaccines to protect
humanity from infectious disease.
As the fifth-largest vaccine manufacturer
in the world, Chiron remains dedicated
to the legacies of von Behring and
Sclavo to prevent disease and develop
new vaccines to improve human health
globally.
Sagres Discovery
Sagres is a discovery stage company dedicated to understanding
the molecular basis of cancer. Sagres DiscoveryÕs technology
platform combines the biology of cancer formation in
mouse models with the robustness of high-throughput
genomic technologies to enable discovery and clinical
validation of human cancer genes at unprecedented speed.
The Company is assembling the Oncogenomeª, one of the
most comprehensive sets of oncology targets in the world.
Of equal importance, the technology allows for the discrimination
between genes that cause disease and those that affect
or respond to disease processes. In addition to its
own internal drug discovery program, the Company is
building its initial product pipeline by selectively
using strategic partnerships and collaborations. Sagres
is located in Davis, California.
This
press release is made as a matter of record, and is
not intended, nor should be interpreted, as a recommendation
or solicitation to invest in any company or in any Axiom
entity.
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