Geneva, Switzerland, 2 September 2011 – Addex Pharmaceuticals (SIX:ADXN), a leading biopharmaceutical company pioneering allosteric modulation-based drug discovery and development, announced today that it will regain all rights to its metabotropic glutamate receptor 4 (mGluR4) positive allosteric modulator (PAM) program from Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, due to further pipeline prioritization. 

"We continue to strongly believe that mGluR4 is a highly attractive target for treating Parkinson’s and other serious diseases,” said Bharatt Chowrira, CEO of Addex. “We recognize the substantial challenges for the pharmaceutical industry today and we thank our partner for this collaboration and the significant advances we made together in targeting this important receptor. We remain committed to pursuing mGluR4 PAM for Parkinson’s and other diseases.”

Under the agreement, Addex will regain rights to intellectual property and know-how and can pursue the program independently. 


Addex Pharmaceuticals (www.addexpharma.com) discovers and develops an emerging class of small molecule drugs, called allosteric modulators, which have the potential to be more specific and confer significant therapeutic advantages over conventional “orthosteric” small molecule or biological drugs. The company uses its proprietary discovery platform to address receptors and other proteins that are recognized as attractive targets for modulation of important diseases with unmet medical needs. The Company’s two lead products are being investigated in Phase IIa clinical testing: dipraglurant (ADX48621, an mGluR5 negative allosteric modulator or NAM) is being developed by Addex to treat Parkinson’s disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia (PD-LID); and, ADX71149 (mGluR2 positive allosteric modulator or PAM) is being developed by our partner Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., to treat schizophrenia. Addex also is advancing several preclinical programs including: mGluR2 NAM for treating Alzheimer's disease and depression; mGluR4 PAM for Parkinson's and other diseases; GLP1R PAM for type 2 diabetes; FSHR NAM for endometriosis and benign prostatic hyperplasia; and GABABR PAM for chronic pain, urinary incontinence and other disorders. In addition, Addex has discovery programs to identify allosteric modulators of: receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) superfamily, including TrkB PAM for treating neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases); TNF receptor superfamily, including TNFR1 NAM for inflammation (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis); and, interleukin receptor family, such as IL1R1 NAM for gout and type II diabetes. 

Chris Maggos
Business Development & Communication
Addex Pharmaceuticals
+41 22 884 15 11 Direct
+41 22 884 15 55 General
chris.maggos(at)addexpharma.com

 
Disclaimer: The foregoing release may contain forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "not approvable", "continue", "believes", "believe", "will", "remained open to exploring", "would", "could", or similar expressions, or by express or implied discussions regarding Addex Pharmaceuticals Ltd, its business, the potential approval of its products by regulatory authorities, or regarding potential future revenues from such products. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of Addex Pharmaceuticals Ltd regarding future events, future economic performance or prospects, and, by their very nature, involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, whether known or unknown, and/or any other factor that may materially differ from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such may in particular cause actual results with allosteric modulators of mGluR2, mGluR4, mGluR5, GABABR,  FSHR, GLP1R,  TNFR1, IL1R1, RTK, TrkB or other therapeutic targets to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that allosteric modulators of mGluR2, mGluR4, mGluR5, GABABR,  FSHR,  GLP1R, TNFR1, IL1R1, RTK, TrkB or other therapeutics targets will be approved for sale in any market or by any regulatory authority. Nor can there be any guarantee that allosteric modulators of mGluR2, mGluR4, mGluR5, GABABR,  FSHR,  GLP1R, TNFR1, IL1R1, RTK, TrkB or other therapeutic targets will achieve any particular levels of revenue (if any) in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding  allosteric modulators of mGluR2, mGluR4, mGluR5, GABABR,  FSHR, GLP1R, TNFR1, IL1R1, RTK, TrkB or other therapeutic targets could be affected by, among other things, unexpected actions by our partners, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; unexpected clinical trial results, including unexpected new clinical data and unexpected additional analysis of existing clinical data; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Addex Pharmaceuticals Ltd is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable laws.