South San Francisco, California
July 1, 2002
Exelixis, Inc. (Nasdaq:
EXEL) has successfully completed a project for
Dow AgroSciences LLC that
provides new insights into the target and mechanism of action of
a key herbicidal compound. These novel findings could lead to
the development of new crop protection products with potentially
greater
selectivity and potency. Identification and validation of this
target for Dow AgroSciences triggered an undisclosed milestone
payment to Exelixis.
In 2000, Exelixis and Dow
AgroSciences established a Mechanism of Action collaboration in
which Exelixis identifies targets for specific fungicide and
herbicide compounds that are active, yet have unknown molecular
targets. Leveraging its proprietary platform and expertise in
comparative genetics and functional genomics, Exelixis
identifies targets in fungal and plant model organisms. Exelixis
receives milestones and royalties for products developed from
this collaboration.
"We believe that our
collaboration with Exelixis is a key advantage in the search for
novel herbicide and fungicide targets that work through new
mechanisms of action and that have the potential to be
environmentally safe and commercially valuable," said Dan
Kittle, vice president for research and
development, Dow AgroSciences. "We look forward to leveraging
the insights gained through our successful Exelixis research
collaboration and rapidly transforming the excellent science
into value-adding solutions to improve the quality of life while
addressing the needs of the world's growing population."
"Our collaboration with Dow
AgroSciences has been extremely productive, enabling our
companies to work together as true partners to address the
challenges of finding new ways to protect and enhance
commercially important crops," said Lloyd M. Kunimoto, CEO of
Agrinomics and Senior Vice President, Corporate Development,
Exelixis. "We believe our ability to mobilize high throughout
biology and chemistry based on a fundamental understanding of
model systems genetics will lead to important agricultural
product breakthroughs that will benefit society as a whole."
Exelixis, Inc. is a leading
genomics-based drug discovery company focused on product
development through its expertise in comparative genomics and
model system genetics. These technologies provide a rapid,
efficient and cost-effective way to move from DNA sequence data
to knowledge about the
function of genes and the proteins they encode. The company's
technology is broadly applicable to all life sciences industries
including pharmaceutical, diagnostic, agricultural biotechnology
and animal health. Exelixis has partnerships with Aventis
CropScience (now, Bayer), Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb,
Cytokinetics, Dow Agrosciences LLC, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Merck,
Protein Design Labs, Schering-Plough Research Institute and
Scios and is building its internal development program in the
area of oncology.
Exelixis and the Exelixis logo
are registered U.S. trademarks.
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