Incyte Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is targeting the top 50 drugmakers as potential subscribers to its gene sequence data bases,signed up its eighth client, London-based Zeneca Ltd., on Monday

Neither Incyte, of Palo Alto, Calif., nor Zeneca would disclose termsof the agreement. Zeneca will pay annual subscription fees to Incyte,which also will receive milestone payments and royalties for productsbased on the genetic information.

Zeneca is the second new subscriber in three months for Incyte,which was among the first genomics companies to sell non-exclusiverights to its gene sequencing information for drug discovery. Thepharmaceutical firm will have access to Incyte's main data base _Lifeseq (Library of Information for Expressed Sequences) _ andwill be the first to use Incyte's microbial genome data bases, whichstill are under development.

In April 1996, Roche Holding Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, signed onto receive Incyte's genetic information and was the first to takeadvantage of the company's full-length sequence cloning technology.

In addition to Lifeseq and the microbial data bases, Zeneca also willhave access to the cloning technology. Zeneca's main drugdevelopment programs focus on cancer, infections andcardiovascular, central nervous system and respiratory disorders.

Incyte's other clients are Pfizer Inc., of New York; Pharmacia &Upjohn Co., of London; Novo Nordisk A/S, of Bagsvaerd, Denmark;Hoechst Marion Roussel, of Frankfurt, Germany; AbbottLaboratories, of Abbott Park, Ill.; and Johnson & Johnson, of NewBrunswick, N.J.

In January 1996, Incyte officials said the first six customers, whoseagreements average three years, will pay more than $100 million forsubscriptions to the data bases and other services, such as accessfrom multiple sites and creation of custom satellite data bases.

Denise Gilbert, Incyte's chief financial officer, said combinedpotential revenues from subscriptions have not been updated toreflect the Zeneca and Roche deals.

Three months ago Incyte said its data bases contained partialsequences of nearly 100,000 human genes. The total number of genesis the subject of debate, but most estimates settle in the range of70,000 to 100,000. However, Incyte's researchers said their worksuggests the total may be as high as 150,000 genes.

Incyte's stock (NASDAQ:INCY) closed Monday at $36.56, down$1.44. n

-- Charles Craig

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