Autogen to get milestone payment from Merck

Melbourne-based biotech Autogen will receive $AUD1.39 million in a milestone payment from commercial partner Merck, the company announced today.

The payment is for AGT203, a gene discovered by Autogen as part of its diabetes and obesity program. Autogen's alliance with Merck, which includes a number of agreements, brings the company more than $3 million per year in research funding.

"The gene is far enough down the validation pathway to get to a level where Merck was satisfied it had reached a milestone," said Autogen CEO Greg Collier. "It will now go into the 'fast-track' group, where it will be fast-tracked into clinical development."

AGT203 is a muscle-specific gene initially discovered in Autogen's Israeli Sand Rat diabetes and obesity model. Subsequently, the gene was also identified in humans and linked to insulin resistance and diabetes.

According to Collier, the gene may be related to a number of signalling pathways thought to be associated with insulin resistance in muscle. In addition, the gene is located within one of the chromosomal 'hot spots' linked to diabetes.

The AGT gene will now join Autogen's other two lead diabetes and obesity gene targets, Beacon and Tanis. According to Collier, Autogen will continue to validate the gene prior to Merck using the gene or protein to screen for potential lead compounds. The validation program will focus on whether regulation of the gene or protein has an effect on the insulin resistant or diabetic state, providing information about whether the target is druggable.

Collier said the results confirmed the power of Autogen's eXpress Technology Platform, which combines the animal model with human genetics as well as functional genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics to find targets for development.

Coming up behind the three lead targets are a pipeline of another 49 genes, in various stages of validation and patent protection.

Dr Phillipe Durbin, Merck's project manager for the collaboration, said that Autogen was an excellent partner and the pipeline of genes "will ensure a steady supply of leads in the coming years."