In its first development collaboration, Genizon BioSciences Inc. licensed exclusive rights to its Crohn's disease GeneMap product to Genentech Inc. to help discover and develop potential drugs and diagnostics against the inflammatory disorder.

Terms call for Genentech to gain access to Genizon's study of Crohn's disease, which was conducted about 18 months ago. In exchange, Genizon is entitled to an up-front payment, research funding and milestones for each potential product emerging from the collaboration. Specific terms were not disclosed.

"The most exciting thing is that we have someone to move our discoveries downstream," said John Hooper, president and CEO of Montreal-based Genizon, adding that Genentech executives are known as "early adopters of new technology and new discoveries, and they tend to develop products rather rapidly."

The GeneMap for Crohn's disease was assembled from a whole-genome association study of 500 families from the Quebec Founder Population - about 6 million people who descended from 2,600 original founders. That high genetic homogeneity makes it easier to identify disease-causing variations in genes, particularly in disorders such as Crohn's.

"It's a fairly heritable disease - I believe greater than 80 percent," Hooper said.

Genizon's GeneMap consists of more than 20 genes that are involved in Crohn's and "provide a comprehensive picture of what is causing the disease," he told BioWorld Today. The discovery of those genes "leads to quite a lot of different targets and pathways, some of which were kind of expected, based on what's known about Crohn's disease, and some of which were entirely new."

The role of South San Francisco-based Genentech in the collaboration will focus on not only developing therapeutics aimed at those targets and pathways, but also developing companion diagnostics to assist in determining which treatment will benefit which patients.

"It's a personalized medicine approach," Hooper said, that's designed to "treat the root cause of the disease, not just the symptoms."

Genizon has more than 20 additional disease programs in development, and is recruiting between 500 and 1,000 patients plus relatives to study heritable diseases, such as Celiac disease, Type II diabetes, age-related macular degeneration, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Prior to the deal with Genentech, Genizon's collaborations have had a technology focus, as the company began collecting DNA, conducting analysis and storing information.

"We spent two years creating a huge IT infrastructure, with many different software packages," Hooper said. "It's been a journey."

The company is in discussions for partnering its whole-genome association studies in other disease.

"We anticipate out-licensing the first few GeneMaps to generate cash flow," Hooper said, "then maybe we can think about taking some of these diseases downstream ourselves."