BOULDER, Colo.--Genomica has sold the first US license for its Discovery Manager bioinformatics application to Glaxo Wellcome. The sale closely followed Genomica's first ever license sale, to Oxagen in Oxford, UK.
Thomas Marr, president and CEO of Genomica, noted, "This is the first big pharmaceutical company, so it is very exciting." He said Glaxo's genetics department had been beta-testing Discovery Manager. When the test ended, Glaxo decided to buy the software.
The software is an integrated application that was initiated when Marr was a scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Susan Strong, Genomica's vice-president of sales and marketing, noted that the researchers who started Genomica a year and a half ago developed Discovery Manager for more than 10 years in an academic setting and are pleased that it meets commercial needs. The software is an integrated application that was initiated when Marr was a scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It provides tools for visualization, analysis, and project management, as well as a database that integrates information from numerous sources into a uniform format.
Marr said the breadth of Discovery Manager appealed to Glaxo. "I think it was the comprehensiveness," he said. "It covers the entire spectrum."
"The difference between us and the competition is that we offer a broad range of functionality," Strong claimed.
Marr said that during the test phase, Genomica adjusted some aspects of the program to meet the needs of Glaxo's researchers. He said Genomica will continue to work with Glaxo to make minor changes to the software. Many changes were made to Discovery Manager while it was being used in an academic setting, he said, giving the software a long history of tinkering that ultimately maximized its robust and useful qualities.
According to Strong, although Discovery Manager covers the full range of what companies need from a bioinformatics tool, the product can also integrate with existing systems. She said that some companies already have some bioinformatics applications and only need part of Discovery Manager's functionality. "We can appeal to both audiences," she said.
--Amy Adams