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Neurogen Announces Milestone Payment
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Business New Haven
1/5/2004
By: BNH
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BRANFORD - Neurogen Corp. (NASDAQ: NRGN), a drug discovery and development company, has announced that progress in its R&D collaboration with Aventis (NYSE: AVE) has resulted in the achievement of a preclinical milestone which triggers the payment of $1 million from Aventis. The companies are in an exclusive worldwide collaboration to develop new drugs which target corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF-1) for treatment of depression, anxiety and other stress-related disorders. CRF-1 is a hormone in the brain that is known to be involved in the body's response to stress. Current therapies to treat depression and anxiety work by regulating other mechanisms.
Said Neurogen CEO William H. Koster: "Depression and anxiety are debilitating disorders that each affect more than 18 million patients in the U.S. Current therapies for both anxiety and depression carry the baggage of undesirable side effects and are not effective in all patients. Together with Aventis, we are committing a sizeable effort to the discovery and development of drugs that block the action of CRF-1 at its receptor. The milestone is an indication that we are making significant progress toward that goal."
Under the terms of the 2001 agreement with Aventis, Neurogen received an initial cash payment of $10 million and is eligible to receive cash payments based upon the achievement of certain milestones in the drug R&D process. Aventis has assumed exclusive worldwide development, manufacturing and marketing rights to collaborative compounds, and will pay Neurogen escalating tiered royalties based on total sales of any collaboration drugs which come to market.
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