Also, Rhodes notes, "Our two companies have complementaryskill sets; ours in discovery and development, and Celgene's in later stages.With this agreement, we gained all the benefits of partnership while retainingU.S. rights and our independence, as well as tremendous access to capital.Through this collaboration, Epizyme gains access to Celgene's leading drugdevelopment resources, enabling us to substantially increase the breadth anddepth of our efforts, while retaining U.S. rights to our pipeline ofpersonalized therapeutics."
"Celgene is a leader in epigenetic therapies for cancerthrough our existing drugs, and continues to focus on delivering new drugs withhigh therapeutic impact in this area," says Dr. Thomas Daniel, president ofresearch at Celgene. "Epizyme's platform, scientific leadership in histonemethyltransferases and leading position on promising HMT targets offer anexciting complementary approach. Our collaboration with Epizyme is a keyelement of our strategy to develop new and innovative therapeutic paradigms."
Copeland notes that Epizyme's HMT inhibitor platform isextremely robust and that after DOT1L and EZH2, the other 94 members of theclass will follow in its efforts to discover and develop small-molecule HMTinhibitors. Genetic alterations in HMTs are strongly associated with theunderlying causes of multiple human diseases, including cancer.
Epizyme's patient-driven approach represents the future ofpersonalized therapeutics by creating better medicines for the right patientsmore quickly and at lower cost than traditional approaches, he states.
Celgene International Sàrl, located in Boudry in the Cantonarea of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Celgene.Headquartered in Summit, N.J., Celgene is an integrated global pharmaceuticalcompany engaged primarily in the discovery, development and commercializationof innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseasesthrough gene and protein regulation.
