Overview

Zycos Inc. is a drug development company using its high-throughput proteomics platforms to accelerate the process of converting genetic information into drugs. Its technology systems include Epiquest, Biotope, Gencap and Canvas.

The Epiquest system is used to identify self and foreign epitopes for use in drug discovery and the Biotope system uses a multifunctional plasmid DNA to carry disease-specific epitopes to immune cells, encode peptides and/or proteins to modulate diseases and provide therapeutic drug expression.

The Gencap system is based on microparticles to protect and deliver biological drugs, including plasmid DNA, to cells in the body. The Canvas protein expression screening technology is comprised of gene expression vectors, polymer delivery systems and methods of antigen discovery and optimization and detects and catalogs cell protein expression.

Zycos’ gene-based products include ZYC101a, a DNA-based therapeutic being tested in patients with human papillomavirus-associated cervical dysplasia. Another Zycos product, ZYC300, is expected to enter Phase I/IIa studies in 2002 for a number of cancers. Zycos is researching other targets in therapeutic areas such as cancer, inflammation, autoimmune diseases and transplantation.

Partners

Equal partnership to share in research, development and commercialization costs to discover cancer drugs using technologies developed by each company: Medarex Inc.

Collaboration to assess the utility of Zycos’ gene transfer technology for the delivery of zinc finger DNA-binding protein transcription factor genes in vivo: Sangamo BioSciences Inc.

Zycos also has collaborations with academic and medical institutions and companies, which include the Center for Applied Microbial Research, Harvard Medical School, King’s College in London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Schepens Eye Research Institute, the University of Aberdeen, the University of Massachusetts, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Aventis Pasteur.