Norak and Cellomics will jointly market certain Transfluor® licenses in North America and Europe
August 11, 2003
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC and PITTSBURGH, PA – Norak Biosciences, Inc., a global leader in the discovery and development of drugs that regulate G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and Cellomics, Inc., the leading provider of integrated platforms for drug discovery researchers focused on understanding the functions and effectors of living cells, jointly announced today that they signed a North America/ Europe sales and marketing agreement. Cellomics will immediately begin leveraging their leadership position in the High Content Screening (HCS) market, focusing their direct sales channel on a combined offering that includes Cellomics’ GPCR Signaling BioApplication and Norak’s Transfluorâ technology. The agreement additionally provides for 1) marketing of Norak’s Transfluorâ technology with Cellomics' ArrayScan® HCS Reader and/or KineticScan® HCS Reader, an expansive portfolio of BioApplication software modules and HitKit™ HCS Reagent Kits, and informatics products; and 2) co-development of future GPCR-based reagent products. Financial terms of this agreement were not disclosed.
Norak’s Transfluor® technology is a patented, universal GPCR drug discovery technology designed to be the most direct and accurate method for screening potential drug candidates against GPCR targets, whether known or orphan. Transfluor® was licensed in 1999 by Norak from technology developed at Duke University Medical Center and represents the combined research into GPCR signaling pathways over several decades by Norak’s scientific founders, Drs. Marc Caron, Robert Lefkowitz, and Larry Barak.
“Cellomics has the most broadly penetrated HCS platform capable of imaging the Transfluor assay”, stated Terry E. Willard, Executive Vice President at Norak. “The primary objective is to target this installed base with Transfluor to bring this powerful GPCR drug discovery tool to instrument enabled users. We will also jointly target new users for our combined technologies.”
“This agreement with Norak harnesses powerful reagent tools from the world’s experts in GPCR biology using the leading HCS platform in drug discovery,” stated Dan Calvo, President and CEO at Cellomics. He adds, “Through our combined offering, we are now enabling a new efficiency in GPCR discovery that unites the earliest “biology-centric” stages of the drug discovery process with downstream “chemi-centric” stages where later stage drug candidates are optimized. Combined on a single platform, both deorphaning capabilities and GPCR functional characterization assays will be provided to HCS customers for the first time.” Indeed, GPCRs are the most heavily represented target class of the top-selling 100 drugs available today.
Norak Biosciences, Inc., headquartered in Research Triangle Park, NC, is a private biotechnology company. Norak is utilizing its proprietary Transfluor technology to become a world leader in the discovery and development of drugs that regulate G protein-coupled receptors. For more information about Norak Biosciences, Inc., please visit the Company’s website at http://www.norakbio.com.
Cellomics, Inc., a privately held corporation founded in October 1996, pioneered the field of High Content Screening, defined as automated analysis of cell arrays according to temporal, spatial distribution, environment, and/or activity of fluorescently labeled cell constituents, resulting in new knowledge on cellular functions. Cellomics is leveraging their current fourth generation instrument platform and the largest HCS installed base in the life sciences markets to proliferate HCS through a turnkey series of desktop software modules, vHCSä Discovery Toolbox, for significant productivity enhancements throughout the drug discovery process. (www.cellomics.com)
For further information, contact:
Cellomics, Inc. Norak Biosciences, Inc.
Elizabeth Woo, Ph.D. Neil Moore
Director of Business Development Director of Licensing
412-770-2418 919-595-8827
412-770-2450 (fax) 919-248-8033 (fax)
E-mail: ewoo@cellomics.com Email: nmoore@norakbio.com
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