As a part of Entelos, Inc.'s toxicogenomics solutions, Iconix continues to establish research collaborations and licensing relationships with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in diverse areas of pharmaceutical drug discovery. The following section provides you with a description of the research collaborations in which Iconix is currently engaged, and the next section suggests other forms of collaboration between your company and Iconix.

For more information about collaborating with Iconix, please write us at tox_sales@entelos.com.

Current Collaborations

Abbott Laboratories - Iconix and Abbott formed a technology alliance and research collaboration to apply Iconix’s toxicogenomics technology in Abbott’s drug discovery and development efforts. Abbott and Iconix are also working together to develop an in vitro, high-throughput gene expression-based screening system for early stage compounds for potential liver toxicity. Abbott and Iconix research in this area will build on the partners’ experience with in vivo-based predictive toxicology models to extend toxicogenomic analysis into the in vitro domain using both non-human and human cell types. Abbott expects to integrate the resulting predictive in vitro Drug Signatures into its early stage drug screening efforts, and Iconix will commercialize the technology to other members of the life sciences industry.

Bristol-Myers Squibb - In a multiyear agreement, Iconix is working on several Bristol-Myers Squibb projects each year involving proprietary Bristol-Myers Squibb compounds. Bristol-Myers Squibb has also integrated Iconix’s toxicogenomics technology into its research and development organization in an effort to better prioritize and select candidate drug molecules and to improve its understanding of the safety and mechanistic profiles of new compounds prior to and during pre-clinical development, and where appropriate during clinical development.

Eli Lilly and Company - Iconix is working with Eli Lilly and Company on a research collaboration where Lilly will apply Iconix's chemogenomics technology in efforts to better prioritize and select candidate drug molecules and to improve Lilly's understanding of the safety and mechanistic profiles of new proprietary compounds prior to and during pre-clinical development, and also during clinical development. The research collaboration calls for the addition of new compounds and tissues to DrugMatrix in several key areas resulting in a database with greater depth and breadth, and additional Drug Signatures for these new chemistry and tissue domains. Additionally, as part of the agreement, Lilly will integrate its in-house toxicogenomics data with that in Iconix's DrugMatrix.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) - Iconix has provided CDER with research access to its DrugMatrix® system to evaluate the required skill sets, tools and systems architecture that would be needed to support assessment of toxicogenomics data in the drug review process. Iconix is providing training and support in the areas of QA/QC methods associated with gene expression microarray data generation, analysis of data across multiple gene microarray product platforms, and the derivation and validation of markers of toxicity and mechanism from integrated toxicogenomic datasets. The FDA group is developing guidance to address the optimal and minimal content and format of gene expression microarray data submissions linked electronically to standard toxicology and pharmacology study results. Most recently, Iconix has responded to an FDA request for a model, "mock" submission of microarray data that would accompany an Investigational New Drug package.

Examples of Toxicogenomics Collaborations

In addition to the collaborations described above, there are a number of ways that you can work with Iconix.

One example is a toxicogenomic collaboration to profile and rescue pipeline candidates based on toxicogenomic analysis and signatures. In this program Iconix can profile a company’s validated leads and preclinical candidates using DrugMatrix with the aim of prioritizing backup compounds for development. The toxicogenomic profiles provide a basis on which to select second generation candidates retaining the therapeutic class profiles but lacking the toxicological liability.

In alliances that are more broadly aimed at discovery, Iconix can build a proprietary corporate toxicogenomics system that can accomplish any of the following goals:

• Focus on therapeutic, mechanistic (e.g., kinases) or hybrid areas
• Expand DrugMatrix benchmark molecules for a chosen area
• Customize gene, assay and literature profiling
• Integrate corporate proprietary compounds, assays and models
• Derive corporate proprietary Drug Signatures for discovery area
• Track optimization via Signatures
• Select optimal compound for IND and/or backup

Other potential areas of collaborations are more market-focused, where Iconix builds a proprietary chemogenomic system to determine the difference between your clinical candidate and competing molecules of the same class that are on the market or in clinical development. Toxicogenomic product differentiation provides a means to better design clinical trials and better position the product on the market.

These are only a few of the ways that Iconix can collaborate with its research partners. We invite you to contact us to discuss your ideas for toxicogenomics collaborations.

For more information about collaborating with Iconix, please write us at tox_sales@entelos.com.