CuraGen, Bayer deal

BAYG and CRGN entered two drug development alliances. Under a 15-year obesity and diabetes agreement, CRGN will deliver to BAYG during the first five years 80 targets validated by CRGN's functional genomics and bioinformatics technologies. BAYG will use its high throughput screening, combinatorial chemistry, medicinal chemistry and pharmacology to develop small molecules against the targets, and will conduct early stage preclinical development, while CRGN conducts pharmacogenomic and toxicogenomic studies to select and prioritize lead compounds. Following compound optimization, CRGN will genotype patient populations using its SNPCalling technology to identify the most appropriate patients for treatment. The companies, which expect to bring 12 candidates to clinical development, will share R&D and commercialization costs of up to $1.34 billion. BAYG and CRGN will contribute 56 and 44 percent, respectively, to R&D costs, and the companies will jointly commercialize resulting therapeutics and share profits according to their contributions. ...