-- Complete pipeline of novel, competitive, clinical-stage products
addressing major in-hospital and out-patient thrombosis markets
-- Extensive portfolio of pre-clinical and discovery-stage
programmes and platforms targeting cardiovascular diseases
-- Complementary expertise with resulting competences in discovery,
development and commercialisation of small molecules and protein
therapeutics
-- Blue-chip shareholder base (including 3i and HealthCap) and
strong management team
LONDON, and MARTINSRIED, Germany, April 11, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Trigen:
Trigen Holdings plc and ProCorde GmbH announced today that they have merged their interests into Trigen Holdings AG. The combination of Trigen and ProCorde creates a leader in cardiovascular drug discovery and development, focussing on thrombosis and vascular dysfunction. The company's expanded product pipeline includes Trigen's existing clinical stage candidates, TGN 255 and TGN 167, and ProCorde's PR-15, which is expected to enter the clinic later this year. The company also has an extensive portfolio of exciting pre-clinical and discovery stage programmes targeting thrombosis, atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular pathologies. In addition it will benefit from two established discovery platforms, SIGSCREEN(r) and THROMSCAN(r) which have been applied in collaborations between ProCorde and a number of "Big Pharma" companies. The products, programmes and technologies have all been discovered in the laboratories of either Trigen or ProCorde, have been developed in-house and continue to be controlled by the combined entity.
Dr. Sanjay Kakkar, the current CEO of Trigen will become the new group CEO. Barry Knight Trigen's Finance Director will become the group Finance Director and both will serve on the Management Board of Trigen Holdings AG. Dr. Goran Ando (previously CEO of Celltech) has been appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board; the other members include Charles Klotz (representing Canasta Group Ltd), Dr. Magnus Persson (representing HealthCap) and Dr Erich Schlick (former head of R&D at BASF Pharma and representing 3i). The merged company will benefit from one of the strongest management teams in European biotechnology, drawing its Executive Management Team from the senior executives of both companies. The new company will maintain current sites in the U.K. and Germany for the foreseeable future.
TGN 255 is a novel intravenous small-molecule Direct Thrombin Inhibitor (DTI) being developed as a predictable and safer alternative for anti-coagulation in hospital settings. TGN 167 is an orally bioavailable DTI competitively positioned for outpatient anti-coagulation markets with blockbuster potential. PR-15 is a novel anti-platelet protein with the potential to treat arterial thrombosis occurring during acute coronary syndromes without the bleeding risk associated with existing agents.
The combined headcount of the new entity will be 50 with a broad and complementary array of skills enabling the company to execute efficiently programmes from early discovery stage through to late-stage clinical development and commercialisation. The merged company will benefit from in-house discovery and development expertise in small molecule and protein therapeutics, bringing together existing highly-skilled chemistry and biology teams in the U.K. and Germany.
Dr. Gotz Munch, ProCorde's CEO commented, "We are delighted to have found such a complementary partner in Trigen. Cardiovascular diseases, and in particular thrombosis and vascular dysfunction are the world's largest cause of premature death and disability. There is a real need for an industry champion to raise awareness and address the problem head-on through innovative research, drug discovery and development." Dr. Munch will continue to lead the combined company's operations in Munich and is a member of the Executive Management Team in the new company.
Dr. Sanjay Kakkar, Trigen's CEO added, "The combination of Trigen's and ProCorde's pipelines, technologies and skills provides in a single biotech company the opportunity to target the key components of a major therapeutic area to produce competitive products with significant market opportunity. It is of interest that this has been achieved in Europe where the need for consolidation in biotechnology has been recognised for some time but finding a partnership that builds on strengths like this is rare and valuable. We are excited and positive about our future prospects and confident about building a great biotech success from this promising base."
Dr. Sanjay Kakkar will be presenting the newly merged company at the BioSquare Conference in Lyons, France on Thursday 14th April at 4pm in Rhone 3A, Level 1.
Trigen was founded in 1992, initially to pursue a research programme on small molecule coagulation protease inhibitors conducted at the world-renowned Thrombosis Research Institute (TRI) in London. In 2002 it absorbed the drug discovery operations of the TRI and became a free-standing company. Trigen has subsequently successfully identified new drug candidates and taken them into clinical development and has expanded its operations to become a leading U.K. biotechnology company focussed on the discovery and development of novel drugs for the management of occlusive and inflammatory cardiovascular diseases. The lead programme, comprising a series of small molecule direct thrombin inhibitors (DTIs) for the prevention and treatment of thrombosis, is in clinical development in both intravenous and oral formulations. In addition Trigen has other programmes, focussed on thrombosis and ischaemia-related diseases, in preclinical development and discovery. For further information, please visit http://www.trigen.co.uk
ProCorde was founded in 2000 to exploit unique scientific knowledge of the human platelet brought to the company by its founders. Since then, ProCorde has successfully built two platform technologies, SIGSCREEN(r) and THROMSCAN(r) for the validation of new targets relevant to atherosclerosis, thrombosis and heart failure. ProCorde has successfully employed these platforms to offer target validation services to pharmaceutical companies worldwide. In addition, ProCorde began establishing its own proprietary drug pipeline focussing in particular on acute coronary syndrome and atherosclerosis. ProCorde's lead programme, PR-15, is a lesion-specific anti-platelet agent with potential application in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes and coronary interventions. For further information, please visit http://www.procorde.de