Caliper's 'Lab On A Chip' Technology To Screen Neurocrine Assays

Caliper Technologies Corp. and Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. are combining their drug discovery efforts to develop treatments for central nervous system and immune system diseases. The initial goal of the collaborative agreement is to discover lead compounds directed against targets derived from Neurocrine's neurogenomics program. The collaboration will develop ultra-high-throughput screening assays based on Caliper's "lab on a chip" technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will jointly develop at least thirty-five novel enzyme, receptor and functional cellular based assays from Neurocrine's neurogenomics program and screen these assays against Neurocrine's proprietary chemical library as well as Caliper's own compound collection. Neurocrine will pay Caliper undisclosed amounts upon delivery of screening data, as well as product development milestones and royalties on downstream product revenues.

Caliper's LabChip uses split-mix combinatorial chemistry methods, performing thousands of screens from the product of a single bead. According to the Company, reagent and compound consumption under the collaboration will by decreased by three to five orders of magnitude compared to the best current methods.

Dr. C. Nicholas Hodge, Caliper's director of Drug Discovery Technologies, heads the Value Added Screening Collaboration (VASC) program at Caliper.

For more information: Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., 10555 Science Center Dr., San Diego, CA 92121, USA. Telephone: 619-658-7600. Fax: 619-658-7602.