Cellzome Announces Extension of Drug Discovery Collaboration with Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical

Cellzome Inc. has announced that Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc. and its affiliate Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. (J&JPRD), have extended their joint Research Program aimed at identifying new medicines for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) for one year.

First announced in March 2005, the collaboration provides J&JPRD with Cellzome’s Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) processing pathway map containing new drug targets, its chemical proteomics technology, and small molecules targeted at Gamma Secretase.

Tim Edwards, Cellzome’s CEO, said: “Since beginning of the collaboration in March 2005, the two companies have worked closely to identify and advance lead candidates from the Gamma Secretase Modulator project, and are now extending the collaboration to find leads against additional novel targets from the APP pathway.

This is the second of our collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies to extend into 2008, and indicates the value of the interactions identified by our technology and the high quality of the drug discovery work taking place at Cellzome.”