Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. could receive over $30 millionfrom Roussel Uclaf under a research agreement to developdrugs for the treatment of acute and chronic inflammatorydiseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis andinflammatory bowel disease. Specifically, the two companieswill work together to design and develop compounds thattarget the interleukin-1 (IL-1) beta-converting enzyme.

Under the agreement, Vertex, of Cambridge, Mass., hasexclusive rights to develop and market drugs resulting fromthe research in the U.S. and the rest of the Americas whileParis-based Roussel Uclaf has exclusive rights in Europe. Vertexsaid each company will have rights to develop and market thedrugs in Far Eastern countries, including Japan, and each willco-promote the products in the other's exclusive territory.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VRTX) researchers began designing smallmolecule inhibitors of the IL-1 beta converting enzyme in1991. The enzyme "has significant potential as a target for drugdiscovery because of its key role in the release of theinflammatory protein, interleukin-1 beta," Vertex stated."Excess levels of interleukin-1 beta are implicated in a widerange of inflammatory conditions and diseases includingrheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease,insulin-dependent diabetes, lupus and septic shock." Vertexand Roussel will initially focus on developing drugs for diseaseindications that have clear clinical endpoints.

The agreement with Roussel is Vertex's third collaboration witha pharmaceutical company. It has a $30 million agreement withChugai Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. of Tokyo for the developmentof immunosuppressive agents. Under this 1990 five-yearagreement, the companies are studying immunophilins,particularly the FK binding protein 12. Vertex also signed a $20million agreement with the Japanese firm KisseiPharmaceutical Co. Ltd. in April for development of drugs totreat HIV and AIDS.

Vertex research focuses on structure-based rational drugdesign, an approach that uses atomic-level information todesign orally deliverable small molecule drugs that interactwith proteins involved in disease processes. The company isfurthest along in research programs in cancer, multi-drugresistance, hemoglobin disorders and HIV. It expects to beginclinical testing of compounds in all of these areas from the lastquarter of 1993 through the first quarter of 1994. Programs ininflammatory and immunosuppressive disorders are in theearly stages of research.

-- Brenda Sandburg News Editor

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.