By Randall Osborne

Zeroing in more intensely on HIV, Agouron Inc. signed a functional genomics deal potentially worth more than $30 million with PPD Discovery to find new targets for agents that work against the virus.

PPD Discovery, a wholly owned subsidiary of the contract research organization PPD Inc., of Wilmington, N.C., brings to the table a catalogue of HIV inhibitors derived from viral and human host genes.

¿We¿ll do with them what Agouron does ¿ drug design, combinatorial chemistry,¿ said Agouron spokeswoman Donna Nichols.

Agouron has agreed to make an undisclosed up-front payment, plus pay a technology access fee, milestone payments and royalties on any products that result from the research. The company also will support work at PPD Discovery¿s genomics facility in Menlo Park, Calif., which is based on a platform called the GSX System and selects what the company calls Genetic Suppressor Elements (GSEs).

PPD will find and prioritize targets during the four-year program. Agouron will help with prioritization, and will choose GSE-defined targets for the discovery and development of therapeutic products.

Terms of the joint research pact were not disclosed, but Mark Furth, chief scientific officer of PPD Discovery, said if the four-year deal goes to its conclusion, ¿and we assume that at least one new product comes out of it, the value to PPD before royalties is well in excess of $30 million.¿

By modulating expression or activity of target proteins, GSEs stop the virus from replicating without slowing the growth of host cells.

Steve Worland, vice president and head of antiviral research for Agouron, said GSEs are ¿libraries of fragments of genes, so in that sense they¿re not unique. But they are unique as a mechanism to explore pathways and functional relationships.¿

Worland said Agouron ¿combed the world¿ for about 18 months, searching for such a technology, and is convinced PPD has the most powerful one for Agouron¿s purposes.

In late 1998, the GSE platform earned PPD a potential $30 million deal with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. (RPR) to develop therapeutic agents in oncology, inflammation, cardiovascular disease and central nervous system disorders. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 15, 1998, p. 1.)

Furth said the Agouron agreement is worth substantially more, because it¿s exclusive and because the RPR pact involves multiple indications.

Under the terms of the agreement with Agouron, PPD keeps the rights to pharmacogenomic and diagnostic applications and products, on which Agouron would get royalties. PPD may also develop therapies, which Agouron then could license.

¿We¿ll both benefit, in some sense, from the upside,¿ Furth said, adding PPD ¿certainly would like to continue with this kind of approach,¿ working collaboratively with firms such as Agouron, while entering deals that lean more toward technology access, such as the one with RPR.

The ¿specialized¿ strategy of providing a helpful platform is one followed by many genomics firms, Furth noted. About a year ago, two of PPD Inc.¿s subsidiaries were absorbed by Axys Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, to form a pharmacogenomics company called PPGx Inc., valued at more than $60 million. Furth chairs the advisory board. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 4, 1999, p. 1.)

Last fall, Agouron, of La Jolla, Calif., bought worldwide rights to Pharmacia & Upjohn¿s HIV-1 drug, Rescriptor, for an undisclosed amount. Agouron¿s HIV protease inhibitor, Viracept (nelfinavir mesylate), was approved in March 1997. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 26, 1999, p. 1.)

Agouron¿s focus is ¿about half HIV and half oncology and other kinds of products,¿ Nichols said. The company started recruitment late last year for a double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase II trial of AG7088, an intranasal spray designed to inhibit the rhinovirus 3C protease, an enzyme essential for replication of rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 5, 1999, p. 1.)

¿We¿ve been in Phase II trials for about a year,¿ Nichols said, and results are expected later this year.

PPD¿s acronym stands for Pharmaceutical Product Development. The company¿s stock (NASDAQ:PPDI) closed Friday at $14, down $1.