Microcide And Pfizer Expand Antibiotic Research Collaboration Into Animal Health

Microcide Pharmaceuticals Inc. have expanded their existing antibiotic research collaboration with Pfizer to discover and develop new classes of antibiotics specifically designed for animal health applications. The expanded program responds to a strong interest in developing effective antibiotics for animal health applications that are distinct from antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections in humans.

Under the terms of the multi-year animal health agreement, Pfizer will provide funding for research conducted at Microcide related to this program, milestone payments for research achievements, and royalties on worldwide sales of products resulting from the collaboration.

Since March 1996, Microcide and Pfizer have jointly conducted antibiotic discovery research based on Microcide's Targeted Genomics technology platform. In this program, Microcide has identified and screened in parallel against a large number of gene targets in high-throughput mode. The two companies hope to identify antibiotics for development from entirely new classes of compounds, to address the growing problem of bacterial drug resistance in human infections.

Microcide will apply a similar bacterial gene-based screening approach to identify compounds that could be developed to serve animal health markets. Antibiotics play an important role in protecting both feed animals and companion animals from bacterial infections.

For more information: Microcide Pharmaceuticals Inc., 850 Maude Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94303. Telephone: 650-428-1550. Fax: 650-428-3550.