LA JOLLA, Calif., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc.
(Nasdaq: SIBI) today announced favorable orders by the United States District
Court for the Southern District of California in its on-going litigation with
Cadus Pharmaceutical Corporation concerning SIBIA's United States Patent
No. 5,401,629 for transcription based assay methods.
On July 9, 1996, SIBIA filed an action alleging that Cadus infringed
SIBIA's '629 patent, entitled "Assay Methods and Compositions Useful for
Measuring the Transduction of an Intracellular Signal." The proprietary
transcription based assay (TBA) technology claimed in the '629 patent uses
cell-based assays with reporter genes and gene products to measure the
functional activity of test compounds on cell-surface proteins in living
cells.
On August 20, 1998, the Court entered three orders denying Cadus
Pharmaceutical's motion for summary judgment for lack of enablement,
obviousness and non-infringement. On August 3, 1998, the Court granted
SIBIA's motion for summary judgment on Cadus' counterclaims against SIBIA for
interference with prospective advantage and unfair competition. The effect of
these court orders is to dismiss Cadus' claims for damages against SIBIA, and
to allow SIBIA to proceed to trial this November on its claim that Cadus has
infringed the '629 patent.
"We are pleased to receive these decisions," stated William T. Comer,
Ph.D., President and CEO of SIBIA. "We believe our patented TBA technology
has great commercial value and is widely practiced in the pharmaceutical and
biotechnology industries. We are anxious to press forward with our
enforcement effort concerning the '629 patent and continue our plans for
licensing the patent."
SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc. is engaged in the discovery and development of
novel small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative,
neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders, many of which have large patient
populations and represent critical unmet medical needs. SIBIA is a leader in
the development of proprietary drug discovery platforms that combine key tools
necessary for modern drug discovery, including genomics, high throughput
screening, advanced combinatorial chemistry techniques and pharmacology. The
Company's proprietary molecular targets and drug candidates, together with its
drug discovery technologies and research expertise, have enabled the Company
to establish several corporate collaborations, which currently include
Novartis AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd., and
multiple technology licensing arrangements.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties. As a result, actual results could differ materially from
those discussed herein. These risks and uncertainties include SIBIA's
reliance on corporate partnerships and ability to enter into new corporate
partnerships, whether SIBIA will be successful in demonstrating the safety and
efficacy of SIB-1508Y and SIB-1553A in humans, whether SIBIA will be able to
meet its development goals with respect to its drug candidates and proprietary
targets, SIBIA's early stage of development, the new and uncertain state of
SIBIA's technologies, SIBIA's future capital needs and the uncertainty of
receiving additional funding, uncertainties regarding patents, proprietary
rights and regulatory matters, and other research, development and market
risks. These and other risks and uncertainties are more fully set forth in
SIBIA's most recently filed Forms 10-Q and 10-K.
SOURCE SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.sibia.com
CONTACT:
William T. Comer, Ph.D., President and CEO of
SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc., 619-452-5892, ext. 232,; or Media:
Susan Farley of Dewe Rogerson, 212-688-6840, or
sfarley@dewerogerson.com, for SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc.
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