Transgenomic, Inc. Announces
New Strategic Alliance at
JPMorgan H&Q 20th
Annual Healthcare Conference
San
Francisco, Jan 8 -- Transgenomic,
Inc. (Nasdaq:TBIO) announced during its presentation today at the JPMorgan
H&Q 20th Annual Healthcare Conference that it has entered into a
services provider agreement with the privately held functional genomics company
GenOdyssee, S.A., a French corporation based in Paris. Under the agreement,
Transgenomic will market and sell nucleic acid analysis services that will be
performed by GenOdyssee Genetics, the service division of GenOdyssee that has
been providing such services since its inception in 1999. Transgenomic will
leverage the customer relationships it has developed as a provider of tools and
consumables used in the synthesis, separation, purification and analysis of
nucleic acids to market the services.
“We have repeatedly
encountered the need for analysis services from prospective customers,” said
Collin D’Silva, Transgenomic’s chief executive and chairman. “We have been
impressed with the capabilities GenOdyssee has developed in part with our WAVE®
Fragment Analysis System. We are excited to form this alliance which allows
both our companies to provide a quality solution to a very real need in the
marketplace.”
Users
of the services will include biopharmaceutical companies seeking to establish correlations
between genetic variation and disease and to identify drug targets, among other
goals. GenOdyssee has owned and operated the largest HTS platform of
Transgenomic’s WAVE® Nucleic Acid Fragment Analysis Systems in
Europe. This platform will be used with proprietary informatics solutions to
perform these analytical services. According to Jean-Louis Escary, founder and
president of GenOdyssee, “We have found Transgenomic’s WAVE System to be a very
versatile and cost-effective platform on which to provide our customers quality
analytical services. In order to maximize the platform capacity and quality, we
have developed and protected a multiplexing method that allows us to reach the
high throughput screening scale using the WAVE Systems and a proprietary LIMS
(laboratory information management system) that controls the platform
performance (QC monitoring), and allows us to do data integration in real time.
The alliance with Transgenomic will give us access to a much broader market,
and in particular to the U.S. market. I look forward to expanding the service
area of our service division, GenOdyssee Genetics, with the marketing help
Transgenomic will provide.” The territory covered by the agreement includes the
United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Japan.
Transgenomic
provides versatile and innovative research tools and related consumable
products to the life sciences industry for the synthesis, separation, analysis
and purification of nucleic acids and a wide variety of nucleic acid-based
specialty chemicals. Transgenomic’s specialty chemicals consist of nucleic acid
building blocks (“phosphoramidites”), fluorescent markers, dyes and associated
reagents, as well as oligomimetics (chemically-modified DNA and RNA molecules)
which exhibit proven enhancements in stability, bioavailability, specificity
and efficacy, making them excellent candidates for use in clinical applications
such as genetic diagnostics and therapeutics. Oligomimetics also exhibit higher
affinity and specificity than regular DNA making them excellent candidates for
DNA diagnostics and chip technology.
Transgenomic’s
WAVE System is a versatile system that can be used for genetic variation
detection, size-based double-strand DNA separation and analysis, single-strand
DNA separation and analysis and DNA purification. Because of this versatility,
the WAVE System can essentially replace the use of traditional gel
electrophoresis in the molecular biology laboratory. This patented technology uses
a process known as high-performance liquid chromatography to separate DNA
material so that genetic variation may be identified and analyzed. Proprietary
software controls the process and produces the results of the operation in an
easy-to-read chart format. Once the DNA sample is loaded into the instrument
and necessary data is entered into the software, the process requires virtually
no additional input from the researcher.
In
four years, Transgenomic has installed WAVE Systems in 25 countries, evidence
that it is a global leader in solutions for nucleic acid analysis.
For more information about the innovative genomics
research tools developed and marketed by Transgenomic, please visit the
company’s Web site at www.transgenomic.com.
About GenOdyssee, S.A.
GenOdyssee is a French functional genomics company incorporated in
October 1999 that has pursued from its inception a dual business model: genetic
analysis servicing through its division GenOdyssee Genetics, and the
development of its own therapeutic products through its division GenOdyssee
Pharmaceuticals. GenOdyssee Genetics has developed a fully-integrated high
throughput screening platform in order to provide its customers a unique value
chain of post-genomic services that include high throughput detection and
identification of genetic polymorphisms including SNPs, high throughput SNP
genotyping, bioinformatics and statistical genetics and functional proteomic
services.
Through its division GenOdyssee Pharmaceuticals, GenOdyssee has developed an original approach to human genetic variability that the company has already applied to over 100 genes coding for therapeutic proteins, their receptors and tyrosine kinases involved in the corresponding biological pathways. This program has reaped very promising results. More than 1,300 SNPs have already been discovered that establish the natural genetic variability of cytokine and growth factor pathways in the human population. Among these variants, over 300 functional SNP candidates have been identified. Many of these mutations code for either null mutations or point mutations that provoke significant amino acid changes, either lowering or increasing therapeutic protein activities.
In 2001, GenOdyssee filed 20 patents protecting its first portfolio of therapeutic protein variant sequences and activities. These variants represent highly interesting genetic mutations for future product development. In fact, a proteomic program has been set up to study the biological property of these variants and 32 proprietary variants with therapeutic potentials have already been identified. Among these variants, GenOdyssee has already validated the therapeutic potential of nine variants of IFNs alpha and one variant of EPO for which the company is starting preclinical development. In parallel, genotyping studies involving large patient populations and GenOdyssee's proprietary SNP portfolio will be carried out in 2002. The aim of these studies is to discover novel drug targets in multigenic conditions including infectious diseases and complications of transplantation.
This press release may contain forward-looking
statements that reflect management’s current views and estimates of future
economic circumstances, industry conditions, company performance and financial
results, including the successful partnering in marketing and delivering
quality analytical services. Such statements are subject to certain factors,
risks and uncertainties described from time to time in Transgenomic, Inc.’s
reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any change in such factors,
risks and uncertainties may cause the actual results, events and performance to
differ materially from those referred to in such statements. Accordingly, the
company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements
contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect
to all statements contained in this press release.
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Transgenomic Contact:
Mitchell
L. Murphy
Transgenomic,
Inc.
402-452-5437