Although the terms of the agreement were not revealed, Iconix said it will receive compensation from Lilly in exchange for access to its DrugMatrix chemogenomics system and its drug signatures library.
DrugMatrix is a reference source of information on the genomic effects of drug and chemical treatments. To date, Iconix scientists have analyzed DrugMatrix to discover over 300 drug signatures. These signatures are sets of genes that serve as genomic biomarkers for the prediction of the potential toxicological, mechanistic, and side effect properties of a preclinical drug candidate.
Lilly will use Iconix’s chemogenomics technology in efforts to better prioritize and select candidate drug molecules and to improve Lilly’s understanding of the safety and mechanistic profiles of new proprietary compounds prior to and during preclinical development, and also during clinical development.
The research collaboration calls for the addition of new compounds and tissues to DrugMatrix in several key areas resulting in a database with greater depth and breadth, and additional drug signatures for these new chemistry and tissue domains. Additionally, as part of the agreement, Lilly will integrate its in-house toxicogenomics data with that in Iconix’s DrugMatrix.
Iconix has previously entered into agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb and Abbott, both in January 2004. The FDA also uses the technology and had just renewed its license to use the DrugMatrix system.