BioWorld International Correspondent

Danish genomics firm Inoxell A/S and Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. settled a patent dispute involving target identification technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the agreement also entails cross-licensing and joint ownership of certain patents.

"What we were most happy with the patents we received," said Jacob Petersen, chief scientific officer of Hoersholm-based Inoxell.

The companies, he said, had taken the same basic approach to target identification and validation, even though their supporting technologies differed. Rigel, of South San Francisco, had obtained U.S. patent protection for its platform. Inoxell, spun out last year from Hoersholm-based therapeutic vaccines developer Pharmexa A/S, had European protection for its CellScreen technology. "We could spend a significant amount of time and resources in suing each other and the only ones to benefit from that would be the lawyers," Petersen said.

The companies now are free to operate globally, and they have entered a collaboration agreement centering on certain aspects of the technology. Inoxell's CellScreen platform is based on exposing a large population of cells to randomly generated peptides and using cellular assays to analyze the differences in effect between diseased and healthy cells. Each individual cell receives just one peptide, which is encoded by a retroviral vector that is stably incorporated into its genome. Promising leads can be fished out and subjected to additional validation steps. "You know that the target is druggable before you know what it is," Petersen said.

Inoxell is concentrating on diabetes and immunological disease, but has not yet divulged details of its lead program. It also is involved in a collaboration in an undisclosed area with AstraZeneca plc, of London. So far, the company's funding has comprised seed finance of DKK25 million (US$3.33 million) from Pharmexa, which retains an 83.33 percent stake, an additional DKK15 million from Danish investors Loenmodtagernes Dyrtidsfond and A/S Dansk Erhvervsinvestering, both of Copenhagen, plus milestone payments from AstraZeneca. The company is pursuing additional investment. "That is ongoing," Petersen said.