NEW York, Nov. 16 – Lexicon Genetics has sublicensed aspects of its proprietary knockout mouse technology to Eli Lilly, the company announced Thursday.
The non-exclusive license covers the positive-negative selection and isogenic DNA technologies that Lexicon has licensed from academic researchers for its proprietary mouse gene function validation experiments.
Lilly plans to use the knockout mouse technology in its drug discovery and target validation research. The parties did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.
" We are pleased that Lilly has joined our growing list of sublicensees for Lexicon's powerful gene-targeting technology," said Randall Riggs, Lexicon’s senior vice president of business development said in a statement. “It has become the gold standard for target validation."
Lexicon’s other sublicensees for this technology include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Roche Bioscience, Schering-Plough Research Institute, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, Amgen, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, American Home Products, DuPont Pharmaceuticals, and Biogen.
This new agreement follows on the heels of rival Deltagen’s Monday announcement that it had filed an antitrust countersuit against Lexicon. Lexicon has sued Deltagen for patent infringement on positive-negative selection and its isogenic DNA technologies, and this suit is pending in federal court.