ARQULE COMPOUND REACHES PRE-IND STAGE WITH ROCHE BIOSCIENCE
-Roche Bioscience and ArQule Research Drug Optimization Milestone-
Medford, Mass., and Palo Alto, Calif., May 5, 1999 -- ArQule, Inc., (Nasdaq: ARQL) and Roche Bioscience today announced that the first milestone has been reached in their drug optimization collaboration, triggering a milestone payment to ArQule. Roche Bioscience has selected a compound from ArQule's Directed Array ™ program as an Investigational New Drug (IND) candidate. The drug has entered toxicology studies in preparation for human clinical testing.
Roger Whiting, Ph.D., senior vice president and head of the Neurobiology Unit at Roche Bioscience said, "ArQule's Directed Array program has delivered an optimized molecule for development as an IND candidate with great efficiency. ArQule's technology has clearly been of benefit to our drug discovery activities."
Stephen A. Hill, Ph.D., president and CEO of ArQule, noted: "ArQule's Mapping Array ™ and Directed Array products are meeting a significant need in the pharmaceutical industry for identification and optimization of novel molecules. We believe the Roche Bioscience compound will be the first of many ArQule molecules to advance through the clinical stages of development. We see today's milestone as continued validation of ArQule's combinatorial chemistry technology, its products, and its business strategy of close collaborations with the world's premier pharmaceutical companies."
In July 1998 ArQule's discovery program with Monsanto reached a comparable milestone when a compound was selected for development for agricultural applications. Today's milestone with Roche Bioscience is the first such milestone in ArQule's pharmaceutical programs. The Directed Array program is an iterative parallel process that selects and optimizes desired compound features.
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 prescription 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.
ArQule, Inc., is a world leader in the use of high-throughput parallel combinatorial chemistry for drug discovery and other life science applications. The Company's AMAP ™ Chemistry Operating System is a highly automated and integrated series of chemistry workstations designed to facilitate drug discovery by rapidly generating thousands of novel pure, single drug-like molecules. The Company's products include the Mapping Array ™ program for screening compounds against biological targets, the Custom Array™ program for synthesis of compounds on a custom basis, and the Directed Array ™ program for lead optimization. ArQule is building value through a variety of collaborations in which partners gain access to ArQule products, services and technologies. ArQule's technologies are protected by nine U.S. and four international patents. ArQule's facilities are located in Medford, Waltham and Woburn, MA.
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are "forward looking" statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The actual results may differ from those projected in the forward looking statement due to risks and uncertainties that exist in the Company's operations, development efforts and business environment. These risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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