BRASILIA, Brazil and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/
-- The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and Genzyme Corp. (Nasdaq: GENZ)
today announced that they have formed a research collaboration to advance
new treatments for certain neglected diseases. The partners will focus
initially on Chagas disease, a life-threatening infectious disease
affecting millions of people in Latin America.
Fiocruz, a premier public institution chartered by the Brazilian
Ministry of Health to promote health and social development, has expertise
in biology, medicine, clinical treatment and the epidemiology of infectious
disease. Genzyme is a leading global biotechnology company that is
participating in efforts to discover and advance novel treatments for
neglected diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness through its
Humanitarian Assistance for Neglected Diseases initiative.
Fiocruz and Genzyme will collaborate initially on two specific research
programs. The first will focus on identifying novel biological targets
within the parasite that causes Chagas disease and will include screening
for potential compounds that affect these targets and which could be
developed into drugs. The second program will test the effectiveness of
using monoclonal antibodies to neutralize a protein that contributes to
heart damage in Chagas disease, known as transforming growth factor-beta.
Under the partnership agreement, scientists from Fiocruz and Genzyme
are expected to work in each other's laboratories from time to time. The
collaboration includes an innovative approach to intellectual property
rights, providing Fiocruz rights to commercial uses within the field of
neglected disease on a royalty-free basis.
Both organizations bring strong capabilities to these research areas.
Fiocruz is one of the world's leading centers for the study of Chagas
disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis. The disease is named for
Carlos Chagas, the Brazilian physician who first discovered the disease,
its cause and mode of transmission in 1909 while working at Fiocruz. In
addition, scientists at Fiocruz have developed metabolic maps of the
Trypanosoma cruzi parasite that causes the disease when it is transmitted
to humans from insects. These maps will be used to explore specific
metabolic pathways that may serve as targets for potential drugs.
Genzyme has considerable experience in several of these pathways and is
also a recognized leader in research on transforming growth factor-beta. In
addition, Genzyme is developing and testing novel compounds intended to
treat African trypanosomiasis-a fatal infectious disease caused by a
related parasite-in collaboration with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases
Initiative.
"Neglected diseases pose significant problems in developing countries
all over the world," said Paulo Buss, M.D., president of the Oswaldo Cruz
Foundation. "In Brazil, with the support of the health ministry, we are
accelerating our efforts to address these problems and to increase
scientific activity in this area. We are very excited to partner with
Genzyme, one of the world leaders in biotechnology, and we are optimistic
that this collaboration will create promising opportunities that may help
us deal with the burden of infectious disease."
Henri A. Termeer, chairman and chief executive officer of Genzyme
Corp., said: "Biopharmaceutical companies have great potential to help
address neglected diseases. Our industry possesses the precious
capabilities to unlock the promise of the lab by converting basic science
into drug candidates and increasing the number of potential treatments
flowing into clinical development. We look forward to building a
productive, sustainable partnership with Fiocruz, and we hope that this
novel way of collaborating can serve as a model for public/private
partnerships in the area of neglected disease drug development."
Rogerio Vivaldi, M.D., Genzyme's senior vice president and general
manager for Latin America, commented: "This partnership with Fiocruz
enables us to expand our support for research and development in Brazil and
in Latin America, where we have already begun to increase our investment in
clinical trials. Our work in neglected diseases is based on the same values
and the same commitment to patients that have driven our work in developing
treatments for people with orphan diseases."
Through its Humanitarian Assistance for Neglected Diseases initiative,
Genzyme is participating in efforts to discover and advance novel
treatments for neglected diseases. The initiative serves as a vehicle to
identify, evaluate and manage scientific projects and partnerships focused
on diseases that collectively affect hundreds of millions of people,
including malaria, Chagas disease, sleeping sickness and other diseases.
Genzyme is focusing on projects where it can play a defined role in the
process of moving potential new treatments from discovery toward clinical
testing. The HAND initiative complements existing Genzyme programs that
provide free medicines and help to build sustainable health care systems in
developing countries.
About the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ)
The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) is the largest biomedical
research institution in Latin America and one of the most respected in the
world. FIOCRUZ forms part of the Brazilian Ministry of Health and plays an
important role in the area of science and technology in health, including
activities in basic and applied research, teaching, reference hospital and
ambulatory assistance, strategies formulation in public health, information
and diffusion, personnel training, vaccines, drugs, diagnostic kits and
reagents production, quality control and development of technologies for
health. The organization is over 100 years old and was modeled on the
Pasteur Institute from where Oswaldo Cruz (the Institute's founder and its
first Director) drew inspiration.
About Genzyme Corporation
One of the world's leading biotechnology companies, Genzyme is
dedicated to making a major positive impact on the lives of people with
serious diseases. Since 1981, the company has grown from a small start-up
to a diversified enterprise with more than 9,000 employees in locations
spanning the globe and 2006 revenues of $3.2 billion. Genzyme has been
selected by FORTUNE as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work for" in the
United States. With many established products and services helping patients
in nearly 90 countries, Genzyme is a leader in the effort to develop and
apply the most advanced technologies in the life sciences. The company's
products and services are focused on rare inherited disorders, kidney
disease, orthopaedics, cancer, transplant, and diagnostic testing.
Genzyme's commitment to innovation continues today with a substantial
development program focused on these fields, as well as immune disease,
infectious disease, and other areas of unmet medical need.
Genzyme in Brazil
Genzyme established an affiliate organization in Brazil in 1997,
becoming the first major biotechnology company to operate in the country.
Over the past ten years, Genzyme has introduced in Brazil a number of
treatments for rare inherited disorders (known also as "orphan diseases"),
as well as treatments for kidney disease, thyroid cancer and organ
transplant. Genzyme employs more than 100 people in Brazil. The company's
operations are based in Sao Paulo, and its office in Rio de Janeiro serves
as a hub for commercial, medical, regulatory, and clinical research
activities throughout Latin America.
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including
statements about the research collaboration between Genzyme and Fiocruz,
the research programs that are currently proposed as well as the potential
disease targets, and Genzyme's Humanitarian Assistance for Neglected
Diseases program. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected
in these forward- looking statements. These risks and uncertainties
include, among others, the general risks and uncertainties associated with
drug discovery efforts, the ability of Fiocruz and Genzyme to execute the
research plan as proposed, whether any compounds will be identified which
could be developed into drugs, and the risks and uncertainties described in
reports filed by Genzyme with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including without
limitation the factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in
Genzyme's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March
31, 2007. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on the
forward-looking statements contained in this press release. These
statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and we
undertake no obligation to update or revise the statements.
Contact:
Cristina Tavares or Wagner de Oliveira
Coordination of Social Communication
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation
chris@fiocruz.br or wagnerol@cict.fiocruz.br
+ 55 21 3885 1658 or 1744
Bo Piela
Genzyme Corporation
bo.piela@genzyme.com
+1 617 768 6579
SOURCE Genzyme Corp.
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Related links:
http://www.genzyme.com
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/113803.html /
CONTACT:
Bo Piela of Genzyme Corporation,
+1-617-768-6579, bo.piela@genzyme.com ; Cristina Tavares,
+55-21-3885-1658, chris@fiocruz.br or Wagner de Oliveira,
+55-21-3885-1744, wagnerol@cict.fiocruz.br both of Oswaldo Cruz
Foundation
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