Lexicon Genetics enters Japanese drug discovery market

Establishes Japanese drug discovery research network

Lexicon Genetics Inc. (The Woodlands, TX) has entered into an agreement with Oriental Yeast Co. (OYC; Tokyo) to collaborate on development of a Japanese-language web interface that will allow researchers to access Lexicon's OmniBank, the world's largest library of over 80,000 knockout mouse clones. Using the Internet, Japanese researchers will be able to obtain knockout mouse clones from Lexicon for functional genomics research.

"Collaborating with OYC ensures that our powerful drug discovery capabilities are readily available to the Japanese market," said Randall Riggs, Lexicon's senior vice president of business development. "This formalizes a process for our establishment of drug discovery collaborations in Japan."

Since 1968, OYC has been involved in the emerging biotechnology industry through its work in biochemicals for medical diagnostics. In 1987, OYC established, as a new division, a state-of-the-art Research Center called the Nagahama Institute for Biochemical Sciences, which researchers and develops chemical compounds through genetic engineering and other techniques.

According to Mark Berman, president of Oriental Yeast International (OYC's U.S. subsidiary), the Japanese government's recent decision to fund basic research has opened up a whole new era for drug discovery in Japan. "Our collaboration with Lexicon provides easy and direct access for the Japanese researcher to the OmniBank library of knockout mouse clones, significantly simplifying their research efforts."

Lexicon, which specializes in functional genomics through large-scale knockout mouse technology, has established drug discovery collaborations with Abgenix Inc. and Arena Pharmaceuticals, and functional genomics and OmniBank alliances with many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

For more information: Jennifer Wolford, Lexicon Genetics Inc., 4000 Research Forest Dr., The Woodlands, TX 77381-4287. Tel: 281-364-0100.

Edited by Angelo DePalma
Managing Editor, Drug Discovery Online