Memory Hits Amgen Milestone

Memory Pharmaceuticals has achieved a $2.0 million milestone related to its PDE10 collaboration with Amgen, a strategic alliance entered into in October 2005 focused on the development of PDE10 inhibitors as potential treatments for certain neurological and psychiatric disorders. The achievement of the milestone was triggered by preclinical work on PDE10 inhibitors, which satisfied a set of criteria pre-defined by Amgen.

Separately, Memory Pharmaceuticals announced that Amgen plans to increase its research funding commitment for the second year of the PDE10 collaboration. Under the terms of the collaboration, Amgen committed $3.3 million in research funding over the first 12 months. Amgen is increasing its research funding commitment for the second year of the collaboration to $3.9 million.

“The achievement of this milestone and the increase in research funding reflect the productivity of this collaboration and the progress we are making with our partner Amgen in advancing the PDE10 program towards identifying clinical candidates,” said David A. Lowe, Ph.D., Memory’s chief scientific officer. “We continue to work with Amgen to identify lead candidates as treatments for serious neurological and psychiatric disorders.”

The collaboration is focused on the optimization of lead compounds that Memory has identified and that have demonstrated effectiveness in the selective inhibition of PDE10 activity in several animal models. Under the terms of the agreement, Memory could receive additional significant milestone payments for the successful achievement of research, development, approval and sales events for compounds that progress under the collaboration. In addition, the company is eligible to receive royalties that will increase with increasing sales levels on worldwide sales of marketed products from the collaboration.

PDE10 is a class of phosphodiesterases that degrades cAMP and cGMP, molecules that are responsible for improving the function of many different cells in the body, including neurons. By inhibiting PDE10 activity, levels of cAMP and cGMP are increased within neurons, and the ability of these neurons to function properly is thereby improved. PDE10 has been shown to be present at high levels in neurons in areas of the brain that are closely associated with many neurological and psychiatric disorders.