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<p><b>PLIVA announces acquisition of MIXIS GENETICS Ltd.</b></p> |
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<p>Zagreb, 15th April 1999</p> |
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<p>PLIVA, the largest pharmaceuticals company in Central and Eastern Europe announces |
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that it has acquired 100% ownership of the company MIXIS GENETICS Ltd. ("MIXIS") |
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for US$ 3.3 million. By this transaction PLIVA becomes the owner of several |
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patents covering break-through technologies in the field of biodiversity.</p> |
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<p>As the access to proprietary compounds is a key factor for success in the life-sciences |
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industry, modern pharmaceuticals companies are undertaking major efforts to |
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broaden their compound pool or libraries. For small molecules this is done by |
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chemical synthesis, e.g. combinatorial chemistry, or else by parallel synthesis |
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supplementing classical medicinal synthesis efforts.</p> |
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<p> Existing living organisms, e.g. microbes and plants, produce a broad variety |
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of compounds already used in medicine. Therefore, biodiversity programs are |
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currently of major interest as potential generators of new compounds or "scaffolds". |
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Such scaffolds may serve as new core molecule or NCE-s (new chemical entities), |
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to be chemically modified and further developed for the pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals |
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or food markets. Geneticists have recently tried to extend this concept to genes |
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and genomes (combinatorial biology) resulting in modifications of the cellular |
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biosynthetic machinery. However, this elegant concept showed its limitations, |
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because it turned out to be difficult to mix genes and genomes from different |
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organisms, due to genetic barriers between biological species.</p> |
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<p>Using the proprietary patented technology of MIXIS, developed by Prof. Miroslav |
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Radman, one of the founders of MIXIS, and his co-workers, these limitations |
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have been largely resolved because the genetic barriers can be disrupted. Under |
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such conditions one can generate quasi inexhaustible new biodiversity through |
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genetic mosaicism of genes and genomes that would not occur in nature. The process |
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creating mosaic biodiversity is called inter-species recombination. Briefly, |
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MIXIS technology overcomes the normal genetic restriction in each living organism |
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that prevents the introduction of foreign or heterologous genes. Therefore, |
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it is possible to strongly enhance the spectrum of diversity once these restrictions |
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are specifically neutralised.</p> |
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<p>Mr. Zeljko Covic, PLIVA's CEO emphasises that: "Combined with PLIVA's current |
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efforts in the field of biotechnology and streptomyces research, the use of |
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MIXIS proprietary technology will significantly broaden PLIVA's biodiversity |
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program. Together with PLIVA's strong experience in medicinal chemistry, it |
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will ensure PLIVA's capabilities to generate a unique, proprietary compound |
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library. In addition to this, PLIVA is currently evaluating the full potential |
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of this patented technology in various life-science applications."</p> |
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<p>Currently, PLIVA is establishing an entirely new line of biodiversity research, |
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combining all processes necessary to run on a high throughput level generation |
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of new scaffolds and compounds, fermentation and compound identification in |
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combination with versatile high throughput screening platform applicable for |
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various therapeutic areas. </p> |