Healthcare Industry News: H. Lundbeck
News Release - October 30, 2007
Gene Logic Selects New Company Name: Ore Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Shareholders to Vote on Name, Signaling Company's Sole Focus on Drug Repositioning and DevelopmentGAITHERSBURG, Md.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Gene Logic Inc. (NASDAQ:GLGC ) announced today that it has selected Ore Pharmaceuticals Inc. as its new company name. The name, approved by the Company’s Board of Directors on October 23, now will be referred to the Gene Logic shareholders for their approval. This request for approval will be accompanied by a proxy proposal, also approved by the Board, to sell the Company’s genomics assets to Ocimum Biosolutions Ltd. Ownership of the name Gene Logic will transfer to Ocimum on the date of closing.
“Our business is undergoing transformation,” stated Charles L. Dimmler, III, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We’ve proposed this new name to our shareholders to reflect the fact that we’re becoming a new and different company. We believe that the Gene Logic name is a valuable brand that appropriately should remain with the Genomics business of Ocimum Biosolutions. We believe that the name Ore Pharmaceuticals Inc. is one that will enable us to build a meaningful identity more appropriate to the drug repositioning and development business.”
“For several weeks, we’ve been engaged in a careful and selective process,” stated Bethany Mancilla, Vice President, Business Development and Licensing. “Assuming that we receive approval from our shareholders, we have a plan in place to launch our new identity promptly thereafter.”
Key to this strategy is the Company’s proprietary integrative pharmacology program. This program enables the company to determine potential new therapeutic applications for drug candidates provided by its business partners. These drug candidates are compounds that have failed clinical studies for reasons other than safety. At present, the Company is collaborating with eight pharmaceutical partners to reposition their compounds. These partners include Abbott, H. Lundbeck, Merck Serono, Organon, Pfizer, Roche, and Solvay.
When the Company identifies and validates a new potential indication for a compound and the partner reinstates that compound into their clinical development program, the Company is entitled to earn success-based payments upon achievement of certain development milestones. Additionally, in the event that a partner returns a drug to the commercial market, the Company is entitled to earn royalties on sales.
“Our proprietary integrative pharmacology program enables us to evaluate a candidate compound systematically and efficiently across a broad range of molecular, cellular and organismal pharmacology,” stated Tom Barnes, Senior Vice President of Discovery. “This systematic process enables us to understand for each compound the broadest possible set of interactions it has in living systems.”
Based upon the Company’s experience to date in evaluating more than 100 compounds, it has succeeded in determining new hypotheses at the rate of approximately one hypothesis for every three compounds evaluated. Several of these compounds are in the process of animal model validation now. The Company anticipates that some of these compounds may re-enter development at some point in 2008 either under the sponsorship of our partner or under the Company’s sponsorship.”
The Company’s state-of-the-art technology program includes the use of its own genomic and toxicogenomic information databases. Following the sale of the Genomics Business to Ocimum Biosolutions Ltd., the Company will retain in perpetuity full and exclusive rights on a global basis to utilize the existing Gene Logic databases as a component of its drug repositioning and development business.
Company Overview
The Company’s indication discovery technologies are currently applied at its facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts on behalf of a number of top pharmaceutical companies. These companies have provided compounds which have failed advanced clinical studies for reasons other than safety. Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, the Company operates a discovery and development facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains “forward-looking statements,” as such term is used in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements include the Company’s ability to identify strategies for making its businesses successful and the impact of such strategies on our business and financial performance and on shareholder value. Forward-looking statements typically include the words “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “may,” “will,” and similar expressions as they relate to Gene Logic or its management. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. They are not guarantees of our future performance or results. Our actual performance and results could differ materially from what we project in forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons and circumstances, including particularly such risks and uncertainties that may affect the Company’s operations, financial condition and financial results and that are discussed in detail in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. They include, but are not limited to: whether we will be able to identify and successfully implement strategies, on favorable terms or at all, for realizing the value of our Genomics business, including through a sale of all or part of the Company’s Genomics business, whether repositioned compounds are successfully returned to our customers’ pipelines and generate sales, resulting in milestone payments and royalties for the Company or whether we acquire on acceptable terms rights to repositioned compounds that our partners decline to develop and are able to derive revenue from these compounds through licensing or otherwise, whether we can enter into agreements to develop sufficient compounds to fulfill our plans for the Drug Repositioning Division; whether there will be any claims associated with the sale of the Pre-Clinical Division, whether we will be able successfully to manage our existing cash and have access to financing on sufficiently favorable terms to maintain our businesses and effect our strategies, including development of repositioned compounds; whether we will be able to recruit and retain qualified personnel, particularly in light of our restructuring efforts; potential negative effects on our operations and financial results from workforce reductions, other restructuring activities, and the evaluation of strategic options; the potential loss of significant customers; the possibility of further write-down of the value of certain intangible assets of the Company, including goodwill associated with the Genomics Division; and the possibility of delisting from NASDAQ Global Markets, which could have an adverse effect on the value of our stock. Gene Logic undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Source: Gene Logic
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