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(BUSINESS WIRE) — IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Nasdaq: IDPH) and Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. announced signing a licensing agreement for a novel, small-molecule, anti-cancer therapeutic agent, known as HMN-214. Nippon Shinyaku has granted IDEC a worldwide license for the therapeutic agent, except in Japan and Asia.
HMN-214 is an orally administered stilbene pro-drug which has shown anti-tumor activity in a broad spectrum of human tumor cell lines in pre-clinical studies.
NS Pharma, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku, is conducting Phase I clinical trials of HMN-214 in patients within the U.S. with advanced or metastatic cancer who have progressed or relapsed from standard cancer therapies. IDEC will be responsible for further worldwide development of this product outside Asia.
“Licensing HMN-214 offers IDEC the opportunity to expand its oncology clinical development activities into non-hematologic cancers,” said William R. Rohn, IDEC’s President and Chief Operating Officer. “Initially, our clinical program for HMN-214 will examine malignancies in colorectal, non-small cell lung and prostate cancers.”
The license agreement includes an up-front payment to Nippon Shinyaku. Additional payments are contingent upon successful completion of future milestones. Further payments to Nippon Shinyaku may be forthcoming in the form of royalties from future product sales in IDEC’s territories.
About Nippon Shinyaku
Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd., founded in the ancient capital Kyoto in 1919, is a research and development-oriented pharmaceutical company focusing its R&D on the development of products in urology, inflammation and allergy, cancer, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal fields. Nippon Shinyaku is marketing an agent for leukemia, Cylocide(R), and an agent for prostate cancer, Estracyt(R), in the oncology field in Japan. NS Pharma, Inc., located in Parsippany, NJ and the 100% subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku, was established in 1999 to expand its R&D activity in the US. For more information, visit Nippon Shinyaku’s web site at http://www.nippon-shinyaku.co.jp.
About IDEC Pharmaceuticals
IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a leader in the discovery, development, and commercialization of targeted immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. IDEC discovered and developed the first commercially available radioimmunotherapy product (Zevalin(TM)) approved in the United States and, with co-promotion partner Genentech, Inc., the first monoclonal antibody product (Rituxan(R)) approved in the United States, both for the treatment of cancer. IDEC is a San Diego based, integrated biopharmaceutical company with multiple products in clinical stage development and strategic alliances in a variety of research platforms. For a menu of IDEC’s current news releases and quarterly reports or to retrieve a specific release, call (888) 329-2309. On the Internet check the News Center at IDEC’s website: http://idecpharm.cdmail.biz.
The statements made in this press release contain certain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ from IDEC’s expectations. For example, the timing success and cost of preclinical research and clinical studies, the timing, acceptability and review periods for regulatory filings, the timing of and ability to obtain regulatory approval of products, the achievement of future product sales, and the risk factors listed from time to time in IDEC’s SEC filings including but not limited to its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2002, may affect the actual results achieved by IDEC. These forward-looking statements represent the company’s judgment as of the date of this release. The company disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
IDEC Pharmaceuticals and Rituxan are registered U.S. trademarks of the company and Zevalin is a trademark of the company. IDEC’s headquarters are located at 3030 Callan Road, San Diego, CA 92121.
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