LEVERKUSEN, Germany, WEST HAVEN, Conn., and NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Bayer and CuraGen Corporation (Nasdaq: CRGN), an integrated genomics-based drug discovery and development company, announced today that during the four months following the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval of their $1.4 billion drug discovery and commercialization alliance, CuraGen and Bayer have jointly elected 12 targets for drug screening, with the intent of identifying new therapeutics in the disease areas of obesity and diabetes. These targets have been identified using CuraGen's proprietary drug discovery platform, and represent previously unknown drug targets associated with these diseases. Bayer is applying its small molecule screening technologies and chemistry expertise to identify chemicals that may interact with these targets and potentially be developed into novel treatments for obesity and diabetes. The worldwide annual market for obesity and diabetes therapies is estimated to be $98 billion.

"We are pleased with the rapid pace at which our alliance with CuraGen is progressing. The complementary technologies and similar philosophies between the two Companies have enabled us to select a significant number of promising targets in a very short period of time, and we are anticipating similar successes over the coming months," said Dr. Wolfgang Hartwig, Head of Research in Bayer AG's Pharmaceuticals Business Group.

"We are delivering drug targets that are highly refined and more relevant to disease than those identified through other, more random approaches to drug discovery," stated Richard Shimkets, Ph.D., Director of Drug Discovery for CuraGen. "One successful example is a novel gene and protein that we determined to be mutated in exceptionally thin mice. If the diminished function of this gene and protein leads to leanness, an inhibitor of this new pathway may prove to be a therapeutic for obesity."

"The discovery of these targets has created a foundation on which Bayer and CuraGen will jointly develop a pipeline of small molecule drugs to treat obesity and diabetes. Existing therapies have not successfully addressed the needs of the patients afflicted by these devastating diseases. By leveraging our respective expertise in genomics and chemistry, we intend to jointly develop and commercialize therapeutics that will effectively treat these patients, ultimately improving their quality of life," said Jonathan M. Rothberg, Ph.D., Founder, Chairman, and CEO of CuraGen Corporation.

CuraGen's functional genomics technologies enable scientists to determine how genes and proteins function in both diseased and healthy states, how genes are modulated by effective drugs, and how genes function across similar genetic populations. These technologies also enable researchers to determine how genetic variations or mutations directly lead to physiological changes and affect specific diseases under investigation.

"I am very pleased with the progress of the collaboration with CuraGen. The two companies have established an excellent working relationship and we have already selected 12 novel targets for screening to find innovative breakthrough therapies for diabetes and obesity," stated John Armatruda, Ph.D., Vice President, Department of Diabetes and Obesity research for Bayer.

CuraGen's novel drug targets are derived from the Company's proprietary database of over 5 million human expressed sequences, obtained from the coding regions of genes, and are the subject of approximately 450 patent applications spanning more than 2000 pharmaceutically relevant genes and proteins. Pharmaceutically relevant genes are identified through a systematic approach that includes the study of animal and clinical models, drug response studies, large-scale datamining of proprietary sequence and pathway databases, and human genetics. Once discovered, the role of potential targets and therapeutics is validated through the application of CuraGen's validation technologies and through a combination of gene expression confirmation for quantitatively measuring gene expression profiles across hundreds of diseased and matched normal tissues and cells and biochemical, cellular, and animal assays. CuraGen scientists conduct these processes in order to establish causal roles in disease and to suggest which specific disease indications a therapeutic candidate may have the greatest potential in treating.

About the Obesity and Diabetes Drug Development and Co-commercialization Alliance. The obesity and diabetes agreement enables each company to capitalize on the recognized strengths of the other in order to systematically develop breakthrough medications from the human genome. CuraGen is to provide 80 drug targets over the first five years of the collaboration, as well as access to its comprehensive suite of functional genomic technologies, bioinformatics and pharmacogenomic expertise to select, prioritize and ensure the resulting drugs are administered to the appropriate patients. Bayer will utilize its high-throughput screening, combinatorial chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and development expertise to develop small molecule compounds against the targets supplied by CuraGen. The Companies also will share expenses related to later stage preclinical and clinical compound development. Bayer and CuraGen have committed to bring 12 candidates in obesity and diabetes to clinical development. Both will jointly fund the relevant research, development and commercialization activities up to $1.34 billion over a 15 year period.

Ultimately, the Companies will jointly commercialize drugs resulting from this alliance, and then share profits according to their respective contributions.

About CuraGen. CuraGen Corporation is an integrated genomics-based biopharmaceutical company that is advancing the discovery and development of pharmaceutical and life science products through the systematic application of genomics. CuraGen's fully integrated, Internet-based functional genomic technologies, services, and bioinformatic systems are designed to rapidly generate comprehensive information about genes, human genetic variations, gene expression, protein interactions, protein pathways, and potential drugs that affect these pathways. The Company is applying this comprehensive functional genomic platform to develop protein, antibody, and small molecule therapeutics. CuraGen has conducted research with collaborators including Abgenix, Bayer, Biogen, COR Therapeutics, Dupont/Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Gemini Genomics, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Hoffmann-La Roche, Monsanto, Ono Pharmaceuticals, and Roche Vitamins. CuraGen is headquartered in New Haven, Conn., and additional Company information is available at http://www.curagen.com.

About Bayer. Bayer is an international, research-based group with major businesses in health care, agriculture, polymers and specialty chemicals. Employing some 120,000 people worldwide, the group has operations in nearly all countries of the globe. Bayer's four business segments -- Health Care, Agriculture, Polymers and Chemicals -- are subdivided into 16 business groups, each with global responsibility for the success and growth of their operations. For 2000 the group recorded a group net profit of 1.8 billion euros on sales of 31 billion euros. Capital expenditures totaled 2.6 billion euros in 2000 and 2.4 billion euros were invested in research and development. Additional Company information is available at http://www.bayer.com.

This release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including the therapeutic and clinical potential of protein therapeutics, antibody and small molecule drug targets, the scale and speed at which drug targets and candidates can be turned into drugs, CuraGen's continued ability to rapidly deliver high quality, novel drug targets, and CuraGen's ability to commercialize products and derive profits from commercialized products. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The Company cautions investors that there can be no assurance that actual results or business conditions will not differ materially from those projected or suggested in such forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the following: CuraGen's expectation that it will incur operating losses in the near future, the early stage of development of CuraGen's products and technologies, uncertainties related to preclinical and clinical testing and trials uncertainties surrounding the availability of additional funding, CuraGen's reliance on research collaborations, the actions of competitors and the development of competing technologies, CuraGen's ability to protect its patents and proprietary rights, patent infringement actions and uncertainties relating to commercialization rights.

SOURCE CuraGen Corporation and Bayer

Web Site: http://www.bayer.com 

Web Site: http://www.curagen.com 

CO CuraGen Corporation and Bayer

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