By Randall Osborne

SAN FRANCISCO — Genetics Institute Inc. (GI) signed two deals — one with Affymetrix Inc. that gives GI customers broad use of Affymetrix technology, and another with Scios Inc., a new GI partner that will use the company's DiscoverEase library of human secreted proteins for research in cardiorenal disorders and Alzheimer's disease.

Adelene Perkins, business director of the DiscoverEase program for GI, completed the Affymetrix deal late Monday afternoon.

"DiscoverEase genes are the genes that matter," Perkins said. "They're the workhorses of the body. To have isolated them is a big step, but to apply the Affymetrix technology to more quickly elucidate their function is even more of an opportunity."

Affymetrix, of Santa Clara, Calif., and Scios, of Mountain View, Calif., are expected to discuss their collaborations with GI today during presentations at the 16th Annual Hambrecht & Quist Healthcare Conference here.

GI just completed a three-year collaboration with Affymetrix on the use of DNA chips for high-throughput gene expression monitoring. Under the terms of the new deal, GI will pay more than $4 million per year in technology access fees for using Affymetrix's expression analysis tools, and will pay additionally for chips and custom chip designs.

The agreement lets GI build a database of gene expression programs and sell it to participants in the DiscoverEase program, which isolates and expresses a library of novel human secreted proteins that can be screened in bioassays. Participants in DiscoverEase will have access to Affymetrix technology in a way they could not have had before, Perkins said.

"It's the first time Affymetrix has allowed [a collaborator] to take a database of genes and combine it with GeneChip technology to create a database of gene expression information," Perkins said.

Also, under the terms of the deal, DiscoverEase participants can "piggy back on the EasyAccess agreement," Perkins said, referring to the subscription deal whereby GI has broad use of Affymetrix's technology.

"This allows [participants] to put together the DiscoverEase genes and GeneChip technology," she said. "Our DiscoverEase customers are able to purchase chips from Affymetrix with DiscoverEase genes on them, or with other genes on them as long as they are for the purpose of evaluating DiscoverEase genes."

Affymetrix may get more money based on the use of GeneChip and access to related database information sought by those participating in DiscoverEase.

GI and Affymetrix first collaborated in 1994 to develop GeneChip, and later broadened the partnership. GeneChip consists of disposable DNA probe arrays with gene sequences on a chip, plus instruments to process the probe arrays and software to analyze and manage information. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 21, 1996, p. 1.)

Last August, GI expanded its library of proteins through an alliance with Genset SA, of Paris. The agreement, valued at potentially more than $20 million, calls for Genset to provide exclusively to GI the full-length genes encoding novel human secreted proteins from Genset's SignalTag library. GI will express the genes and include the proteins in the DiscoverEase program. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 5, 1997, p. 1.)

"The vision for the DiscoverEase program is that, by having the largest library of secreted proteins available, we attract a large number of partners," Perkins said. "That has an interesting effect. As the partner network grows, it makes contributing to that library of proteins more attractive, because they get access to a distribution network of partners. And the snowball effect makes it attractive for companies like Affymetrix to bring their technology to bear on it."

Scios Seeks Therapeutic Proteins

Scios, in its deal with GI, will screen proteins from DiscoverEase in its internally developed assays, hoping to identify secreted proteins that can be used directly or in modulated form as therapeutics. Terms of the Scios deal were not disclosed.

John Lewicki, vice president of research for Scios, said the DiscoverEase program "complements what we're doing nicely. We're quite comfortable with it. They've brought in the Affymetrix component as a potential add-on. It's not a core technology [for GI]."

Last year, Scios completed Phase III trials of Natrecor BNP, a drug for congestive heart failure, and the company said results were positive. Natrecor's active ingredient is human b-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), a naturally occurring hormone. The company has another drug, Fiblast (trafermin), a formulation of fibroblast growth factor, in Phase II trials for a variety of neurological and vascular conditions. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 9, 1998, p. 1.)

Scios brings the total of GI's DiscoverEase participants to eight. It joins GI Research (the branch of GI that collaborated with Affymetrix on the GeneChip technology); Bayer Corp., of Pittsburgh; Chiron Corp., of Emeryville, Calif.; Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo; Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco; Kirin Brewery Ltd., of Tokyo; and Ontogeny Inc., of Cambridge, Mass.

Genetics Institute is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Home Products Corp., of Madison, N.J.*