DELTAGEN AND ROCHE BIOSCIENCE SIGN GENE TARGET VALIDATION AGREEMENT
SAN CARLOS, Calif. - January 6, 1999 - Deltagen, Inc. today announced the signing of a research agreement with Roche Bioscience to validate target genes. Under the terms of the agreement, Roche Bioscience will provide up to 10 target genes to Deltagen, and Deltagen will use its proprietary knockout technology initially to provide custom knockout mice to Roche Bioscience. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The mice are described as "knockout" because they are bred without a specific gene. This technology helps scientists explore the effects of mutations causing human diseases, and, hopefully, identify drug targets.
"We believe Deltagen's technology will provide a rapid and cost-effective vehicle for our target validation research programs," said Roger Whiting, Ph.D., senior vice president, and head of the Neurobiology Unit at Roche Bioscience.
"Access to Deltagen's knock-out technology should leverage and accelerate our in-house discovery efforts," said Robert Booth, Ph.D., senior vice president and head of the Inflammatory Diseases Unit at Roche Bioscience.
"Deltagen is delighted to provide gene knockout mice to Roche Bioscience," said William Matthews, Ph.D., president of Deltagen. "This represents our third service agreement for the development of our proprietary knockout mouse technology."
In September 1998 Deltagen announced the signing of two research agreements with Merck and Tularik, Inc., in which Deltagen will provide 10 and 15 custom knockout mice respectively, and their phenotypic analysis for gene targets specified by each company.
Deltagen, Inc., a private biotechnology company specializing in the determination of gene function, has developed a comprehensive approach that moves rapidly from the identification of novel genes to the determination of their in vivo biological function. The recent genomics revolution has identified numerous genes of interest, but does not provide information on their specific function within the body. By creating a mouse without the gene of interest, the gene's function in all systems of the body becomes evident.
Deltagen's proprietary technology enhances both the speed and the throughput of targeted gene knockouts in the mouse and allows for the assessment of hundreds of genes per year. The resultant functional information offers the most direct means to assess the therapeutic relevance of a gene in the shortest possible time frame.
Located in Palo Alto, Calif., Roche Bioscience is a research-based, business-oriented enterprise dedicated to the discovery and accelerated early clinical development of innovative presecription drugs. Roche Bioscience is a member of the Roche Group, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. The Roche Bioscience website is available at www.roche.com/bioscience.
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